RSS Feed

Related Articles

Related Categories

A third of single women say they wouldn’t date someone that lives with their parents

23rd September 2014 Print

Where you live, or rather who you live with, is a dating deal-breaker for 32% of young single women, according to new research for budgeting account provider thinkmoney. Almost a third of single women say they would rule out a relationship with someone who lives with their parents, compared to just over 1 in 10 single men.

With 3.3m young adults in the UK under the age of 34 now living with their parents according to the ONS, the new survey - conducted as part of thinkmoney’s Great Escape campaign - shows the impact this has on both our perception of young adults living with parents and their love lives.

In fact, for some of the over 900,000 single men living with their parents, being shunned by almost a third of single women may be adding insult to injury: 13% of those who moved back to the parental home did so due to a failed relationship.

As harsh as these findings may seem on the almost one million male singletons living in the parental home, the live-at-home men polled for thinkmoney don’t necessarily all come across as the most eligible of bachelors.

Why live at home?

While some people may have a preconceived image of adults choosing to live with their parents so they can enjoy an easy life of having their cooking and ironing done for them, in fact there are all sorts of reasons people stay with or move back in with their parents.

A third (35%) of 18 to 34-year-olds questioned for thinkmoney revealed they lived at home because they couldn’t afford to rent a place, while one in eight (17%) said it was because they couldn’t afford to buy. A further quarter (27%) admitted they were saving up for a deposit for a home. And nearly one in 20 (3.8%) revealed that living with their family was traditional in their culture.

thinkmoney’s Ian Williams commented: “Many young adults are forced, or choose, to live at home because the cost of getting a place of their own is prohibitive. Whilst both sexes, but women in particular, claim that dating somebody who lives with their parents is a deal breaker, you have to wonder whether this ideal is sacrificed if they find Mr or Miss right.”