UK report links relationship decline among young people to isolation and rising costs

The Centre for Social Justice says young people in Britain are finding it harder to form relationships, amid falling rates of marriage and sexual activity and rising social isolation. Its report, Relationship Recession, links these trends to factors including explicit content, living costs, unemployment and changes in how people meet.

The report says nearly 30 per cent of 20- to 34-year-olds now live with their parents, up from 20 per cent in 2008; men approaching 25 are 26 times more likely to live with their mother than a spouse. It also cites a fall in marriage by age 30 over the past 50 years, a decline in sexually active 16- to 24-year-olds from 68 to 44 per cent in seven years, and a record-low fertility rate of 1.39 children per woman in England and Wales. More than 18 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds say they have considered posting adult content online.