More than half of disadvantaged students living at family home

A record 90,000 undergraduates are living at home this year, according to new figures from the university admissions service.

Final Ucas data for the 2025 cycle shows that more UK 18-year-olds accepted a university place this year than ever before – 289,200. The increase of 3.5 per cent on last year is the largest annual jump in four years.

Of them, a peak total of 89,510 (31 per cent) said they planned to live at home, compared with 83,705 (29.9 per cent) last year and just 21.7 per cent a decade ago.

This was even higher among the most disadvantaged students, with more than half (52 per cent) stating that this was their intention – meaning they are three times as likely to be based at home as their wealthy peers.

In recent years the least disadvantaged students have also become more likely to live at home, but their proportion is much lower, at 18 per cent.

While the intention to live at home was roughly even for men and women, these figures, published by Ucas on 10 December, show sharp contrasts among the home nations – although it has become more popular in all of them.

Living at home has historically been more common in Scotland, and its rate has climbed slightly to 46.1 per cent. This is far higher than the 21 per cent of 18-year-olds in Wales who live at home and the 30.1 per cent of those in England.

At 35.1 per cent, Northern Ireland has recorded the largest jump in the proportion of young people living with their parents – 3 percentage points more than 2024 and 12.8 percentage points more than in 2016.

In Northern Ireland, prosperity has little bearing on where a student resides – with 42 per cent of both the least and most disadvantaged cohort intending to remain at home.

The rising cost of living has meant that more and more young people are unable to afford student housing, and many commute long distances to their universities.

“While staying at home can absolutely be the right choice for some, such as those with caring or family responsibilities, for others it may close doors and limit access to courses or the wider university experience,” saidUcas chief executive Jo Saxton. 

She said universities and colleges are highly aware of these pressures and make significant efforts to support students through scholarships, bursaries and helping with travel costs.

Across all age groups, 35 per cent of domestic students will live at home in 2025-26 – although this is below record levels seen during the pandemic and is only marginally higher than a decade ago.

In a briefing, Rory Grant, head of data science and engineering at Ucas, said it was surprising that even the wealthiest students were more likely to live at home, which could point to “something beyond the cost of living”.

In addition, the Ucas figures showed a continuation of some of the trends observed earlier in the year – with elite universities dominating the competition for places.

High-tariff providers accepted a record 39 per cent of all UK 18-year-olds, 56 per cent of all international students and 32.5 per cent of the total intake.

This was only the second time ever that these universities accepted more students of all ages and nationalities than medium-tariff providers (32 per cent). A record low 36 per cent went to the lowest tariff.

This release will be the last time that the current tariff provider groups are used before Ucas updates them.

After a busy few weeks of the clearing process, a total of 77,110 applicants used this method to secure their place, a slight increase from 76,215 in 2024.