Households and people living alone, UK
Households in the UK each year since 1996 and those of one person, people living alone, with the average household size, from the ONS's Labour Force Survey estimates of families and households.
All households
29,003,000
2025 · 2.36 people a household on average; 8,570,000 people living alone
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:07 UTC- All households
- One-person households
Source: Office for National Statistics. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
30 periods, newest first
| Period | All households | One-person households |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 29,003,000 | 8,570,000 |
| 2024 | 28,609,000 | 8,433,000 |
| 2023 | 28,358,000 | 8,380,000 |
| 2022 | 28,243,000 | 8,346,000 |
| 2021 | 28,119,000 | 8,310,000 |
| 2020 | 27,893,000 | 8,239,000 |
| 2019 | 27,824,000 | 8,197,000 |
| 2018 | 27,576,000 | 8,007,000 |
| 2017 | 27,226,000 | 7,715,000 |
| 2016 | 27,109,000 | 7,660,000 |
| 2015 | 27,046,000 | 7,743,000 |
| 2014 | 26,734,000 | 7,599,000 |
| 2013 | 26,663,000 | 7,761,000 |
| 2012 | 26,620,000 | 7,729,000 |
| 2011 | 26,409,000 | 7,660,000 |
| 2010 | 26,240,000 | 7,591,000 |
| 2009 | 26,042,000 | 7,534,000 |
| 2008 | 25,875,000 | 7,534,000 |
| 2007 | 25,609,000 | 7,440,000 |
| 2006 | 25,379,000 | 7,302,000 |
| 2005 | 25,217,000 | 7,230,000 |
| 2004 | 24,993,000 | 7,213,000 |
| 2003 | 24,917,000 | 7,255,000 |
| 2002 | 24,792,000 | 7,221,000 |
| 2001 | 24,535,000 | 7,027,000 |
| 2000 | 24,396,000 | 6,954,000 |
| 1999 | 24,209,000 | 6,839,000 |
| 1998 | 24,036,000 | 6,709,000 |
| 1997 | 23,865,000 | 6,642,000 |
| 1996 | 23,738,000 | 6,608,000 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Office for National Statistics
- Check it yourself
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/datasets/familiesandhouseholdsfamiliesandhouseholds
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 9 November 2026, 14:52 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/datasets/familiesandhouseholdsfamiliesandhouseholds/dataSHA-256 d8084178d460f295c40f1b1a0a254636cbfca80366f9753fa0dfd86f77603a0b · 1,430 bytes
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/datasets/familiesandhouseholdsfamiliesandhouseholds/current/dataSHA-256 2ae5af1e742affd98867a0fa665f90aace748d2646ad8cfc1afc8d3f8dc11911 · 3,728 bytes
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/datasets/familiesandhouseholdsfamiliesandhouseholds/current/familiesandhouseholdsuk2025.xlsxSHA-256 f3b59b84938eb6504209074d3f81678468770855a5d1a5382ad68660d1248009 · 175,302 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:07 UTC Run at 9 November 2026, 15:07 UTC; 60 of 60 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Office for National Statistics; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-09T14:52:19Z; 3 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 3 of 3 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 60 of 60 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation and average_size and living_alone match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 60 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 60 of 60 figures match exactly after downloading 3 source file(s) again (3 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation and average_size and living_alone match |
| Pass | ONS edition is current | the current edition counts at 2025-06-30, 497 days before retrieval (limit 700) |
| Pass | Table 6's people living alone agree | 30 of 30 cases of the years' people living alone in Table 6 equal Table 5's one-person households, 1 of them by the publisher's known difference: 2014 (-1) |
| Pass | Households of each size add up to all households | 30 of 30 cases of the years' households of one to six or more people add up to all households, each rounded to the thousand within 3 (15 exactly) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/datasets/familiesandhouseholdsfamiliesandhouseholds – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Households and one-person households in the UK, in thousands, from the Labour Force Survey's household datasets for April to June each year; the ONS gives each estimate with a confidence interval, and from 2011 a household is people who share a living room or sitting room or at least one meal a day, as well as an address.
- The ONS no longer publishes these estimates for Northern Ireland alone; the nations' own statisticians publish the official household estimates for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- The Office for National Statistics publishes these as accredited official statistics.