Families and children in the UK by family type including married couples, cohabiting couples and lone parents. Also shows household size and people living alone.

There were estimated to be approximately 28.6 million households in the United Kingdom in 2025, compared with 23.7 million households in 1996. Since the mid-1990s, there has been an increase of around 4.8 million households in the UK.

In 2024, there were approximately 8.1 million households in the United Kingdom composed of a couple with no children, which was the most common type of household arrangement in this year. The second-most common type of household were couples living with one or two dependent children, at around 5.2 million.

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, is a longitudinal survey of the members of approximately 40,000 households (at Wave 1) in the United Kingdom. The overall purpose of Understanding Society is to provide high quality longitudinal data about subjects such as health, work, education, income, family, and social life to help understand the long term effects of social and economic change, as well as policy interventions designed to impact upon the general well-being of the UK population. The Understanding Society main survey sample consists of a large General Population Sample plus three other components: the Ethnic Minority Boost Sample, the former British Household Panel Survey sample and the Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Boost Sample.

Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates including measures of uncertainty of the number of households by types of household and families, for England, Scotland and Wales, as well as the regions of England.

In 2023, there were approximately 3.78 million households in the South East of England, making it the region with the most households in the United Kingdom. London had the second-highest number of households during this year, at 3.58 million.

This report analyses the number of households in the United Kingdom. The historical data (i.e., 2000-2023) is sourced from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), via its Labour Force Survey (LFS) of people and households in the United Kingdom, while forecast data (i.e., 2024-2029) is estimated by IBISWorld. As stated by the ONS, for data through 2010, a household is defined as a person living alone, or a group of people living at the same address who have the address as their only or main residence and either share one main meal a day or share living accommodation - or both; for 2011 onwards, it is defined as one person living alone, or a group of people - not necessarily related - living at the same address who share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room or dining area. To this regard, figures in this report represent the total number of "households" in the United Kingdom, whereby the ONS uses figures collated in the April-June quarter of each year as a proxy for full calendar year estimates. For more detail regarding the ONS' methodology for data collection, please refer to its "Families and households in the UK: 2023" publication issued on 8 May 2024.

The General Household Survey (GHS), ran from 1971-2011 (the UKDS holds data from 1972-2011). It was a continuous annual national survey of people living in private households, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The main aim of the survey was to collect data on a range of core topics, covering household, family and individual information. This information was used by government departments and other organisations for planning, policy and monitoring purposes, and to present a picture of households, families and people in Great Britain. In 2008, the GHS became a module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). In recognition, the survey was renamed the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF). The GLF closed in January 2012. The 2011 GLF is therefore the last in the series. A limited number of questions previously run on the GLF were subsequently included in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).

Secure Access GHS/GLF
The UKDS holds standard access End User Licence (EUL) data for 1972-2006. A Secure Access version is available, covering the years 2000-2011 - see SN 6716 General Lifestyle Survey, 2000-2011: Secure Access.

History
The GHS was conducted annually until 2011, except for breaks in 1997-1998 when the survey was reviewed, and 1999-2000 when the survey was redeveloped. Further information may be found in the ONS document An overview of 40 years of data (General Lifestyle Survey Overview - a report on the 2011 General Lifestyle Survey) (PDF). Details of changes each year may be found in the individual study documentation.

EU-SILC
In 2005, the European Union (EU) made a legal obligation (EU-SILC) for member states to collect additional statistics on income and living conditions. In addition, the EU-SILC data cover poverty and social exclusion. These statistics are used to help plan and monitor European social policy by comparing poverty indicators and changes over time across the EU. The EU-SILC requirement was integrated into the GHS/GLF in 2005. After the closure of the GLF, EU-SILC was collected via the Family Resources Survey (FRS) until the UK left the EU in 2020.

Reformatted GHS data 1973-1982 - Surrey SPSS Files
SPSS files were created by the University of Surrey for all GHS years from 1973 to 1982 inclusive. The early files were restructured and the case changed from the household to the individual with all of the household information duplicated for each individual. The Surrey SPSS files contain all the original variables as well as some extra derived variables (a few variables were omitted from the data files for 1973-76). In 1973 only, the section on leisure was not included in the Surrey SPSS files. This has subsequently been made available, however, and is now held in a separate study, General Household Survey, 1973: Leisure Questions (SN 3982). Records for the original GHS 1973-1982 ASCII files have been removed from the UK Data Archive catalogue, but the data are still preserved and available upon request.

Presents recent estimates of the number of families by type, people in families by family type and children in families by type. Types of family include married couple families, cohabiting couple families and lone parent families. Tables on household size, household types and people in different household types are also provided. These include estimates of people living alone, multi-family households and households where members are all unrelated. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Families and Households

As of 2022, there were estimated to be 9.8 million people living in a two-person household in the United Kingdom, the most of any household size in this year. Approximately 8.3 million people lived alone, and a further 4.3 million people lived in a three-person household.

Annual data on internet usage in Great Britain, including frequency of internet use, internet activities and internet purchasing.

As of 2024, there were estimated to be almost *** million two-person households in the United Kingdom, the most of any household size that year. In the same year, there were *** million three-person households, while around *** million people lived alone.

In the 3 years to March 2023, 25% of households from the Arab ethnic group were overcrowded, compared with 2% of White British households.

Dataset population: Households

Household composition

Household composition classifies households according to the relationships between the household members. Households consisting of one family and no other usual residents are classified according to the type of family (married, same-sex civil partnership or cohabiting couple family, or lone parent family) and the number of dependent children. Other households are classified by the number of people, the number of dependent children, or whether the household consists only of students or only of people aged 65 and over.

In Northern Ireland only:

• A dependent child is a person in a household aged 0 to 15 (whether or not in a family) or a person aged 16 to 18 who is a full-time student in a family with parent(s).
• A family consists of a couple (married, same-sex civil partnership or cohabiting) with or without children, or a lone parent and their children. It also includes a married, same-sex civil partnership or cohabiting couple with their grandchildren or a lone grandparent with his or her grandchildren, if there is no parent in the intervening generation in the household. A family will also include step-children when their parent is part of the couple.

Tenure

Tenure provides information about whether a household rents or owns the accommodation that it occupies and, if rented, combines this with information about the type of landlord who owns or manages the accommodation.