Enfield has second-highest rate of adult children living with parents

New data suggests young adults “being priced out of living in Enfield”, reports James Cracknell

Nearly one-in-three Enfield families have adult children living with them

Nearly one-in-three Enfield families have adult children living at home – the second-highest rate in England and Wales.

Newly-released Census 2021 figures show that 28,500 Enfield families had at least one adult child living with them at the time of the survey, a rate of 31.9%. This puts the borough behind only Brent, where 32.4% of families had an adult child at home.

The 31.9% rate for Enfield is up significantly on the 24.5% figure recorded in 2011.

Across England and Wales as a whole, the average percentage of families with adult children living with their parents rose from 21.2% in 2011 to 22.4% in 2021 – a total of nearly 3.8 million. In London, 26.8% families had at least one adult child in the home, the highest of any English region.

Six of the ten local authorities with the highest proportion of families with adult children were in London. After Brent and Enfield, Newham (31.4%), Redbridge (30.6%) and Barking and Dagenham (30.3%) also had high rates.

Neighbouring Barnet, however, had a significantly lower rate than Enfield, of 26%.

This story is published by Enfield Dispatch, Enfield's free monthly newspaper and free news website. We are a not-for-profit publication, published by a small social enterprise. We have no rich backers and rely on the support of our readers. Donate or become a supporter.

The median age of adult children living with their parents in England and Wales in 2021 was 24 years, one year older than in 2011.

Matt Burn, from campaign group Better Homes Enfield, said: “Young adults are being priced out of living in Enfield. The result is that households are overcrowded, and young families are leaving Enfield. We are already seeing significant falls in demand for school places.

“Addressing this in the short-term requires removing the housing benefit cap, introducing rent controls, and measures to reduce the number of properties left vacant or used as short-term lets.

“Longer term, Enfield needs to build far more genuinely affordable social rent homes, something which the borough has performed very poorly on in recent years.”

London was the least affordable region for buying a home in 2022, with an average worker spending 12.5 times their annual earnings to buy a home where they work. London was also the least affordable region for private rental housing in 2021, with the average rent equivalent to 39.8% of average household incomes.

The Office for National Statistics, which publishes census data, adds that despite Census 2021 being conducted during the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns “the rise in numbers of adults living with their parents appears to be a continuing trend rather than a result of the pandemic”.

We know times are hard

If you are struggling to make ends meet, we are keeping Enfield Dispatch free because of you. We know that many people cannot afford to pay for local news, so this website and our print paper will always be free. If you can afford to, and value what we do, a small monthly, yearly or one-off contribution can support us to keep providing quality journalism for Enfield to our community for free.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.