Cost of Living: Age
(asked on 8th July 2025) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of changes in the age at which adults are able (1) to buy a house, (2) to have children and (3) to get married, due to the financial strain of these milestones.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician
The Lord Taylor of Warwick
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
14 July 2025
Dear Lord Taylor of Warwick,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of changes in the age at which adults are able (1) to buy a house, (2) to have children and (3) to get married, due to the financial strain of these milestones (HL9248).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not make any direct assessment of the extent to which financial strain impacts the age that people buy a house, have children or get married.
The ONS does publish the average age for different types of house buyers, including first time buyers, for years from 1990 to 2023, available in our House Price Data: annual tables - Table 37[1], and based on a sample of the Regulated Mortgage Survey.
In addition, the ONS has published Milestones: journeying through modern life[2] which includes information on age at which people buy a home, first marriage and age of first time mothers.
To assess the changing age of purchasers buying homes, people most commonly use the English Housing Survey, conducted by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). This includes analysis of change over time[3].
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/datasets/housepriceindexannualtables2039