In another indicator of lifestyle changes, the number of marriages increased in the early noughties from 286,000 in 2001 to 308,000 in 2003. That compares with 408,000 in 1950, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Marriage remains the preferred foundation for family life, with seven in ten couples with children being married.

However, separation rates between couples, both married and cohabiting, have reached such proportions that almost one in four children now live with just one parent.

Overall, the number of households in Britain has increased by almost a third in the past 30 years.

From 1971 to 2005 the number of households rose from 18.6 million to 24.2 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The rise includes an 11 percentage-point increase in the number of single-person households, fuelled by divorce rates.

Men aged 25 to 64 are now twice as likely to live alone as they were in the mid-1980s and there have been increases in all age groups living alone, except between 65 and 74, where the rate has remained constant.

In 1971, according to the ONS’s annual Social Trends report, 18 per cent of households contained only one person. By 2005 the figure had risen to 29 per cent.

Two-person households rose slightly over the same period, from 32 per cent to 35 per cent, but those with three or more people all fell.

Up to one in four men in their twenties is still to be found living with his parents. In 1991 half of 20 to 24-year-old men lived at the family home, and this rose to 57 per cent by last year, a slight fall on the 59 per cent in 2004.

In the 25 to 29 age bracket 23 per cent of men can still be found at home with their parents, compared with 19 per cent in 1991.

Women are more likely to fly the nest early, though they do remain in the family home for longer than in 1991. The proportion of women aged 20-24 living with their parents has risen from 32 to 38 per cent since 1991 and for those aged 25-29 the rate has increased from 9 to 11 per cent.

Women are increasingly likely to have husbands who are younger than they are. In 1963 only 15 per cent of married women had younger husbands but by 2003 this had risen to 26 per cent.

The Social Trends report looks at a range of aspects of modern life including health, education, employment, ethnicity and transport.

Many more find a place in the sun

AMONG the trends identified by the ONS is a sharp rise in the number of second homes abroad purchased by Britons.

In 2000 there were 176,482 holiday homes abroad owned by Britons and by 2004 this had increased to 256,609.

The most popular country for a second home was Spain, where the number rose from 47,650 to 69,284, followed by France where the figure rose from 35,296 to 51,322.

Rupert Lee-Browne, CEO of Caxton FX a currency exchange company, said: “The reasons for the overseas market growing are very straightforward. Property price rises here have enabled people to extract money from their main home to buy overseas — it couldn’t have happened if the UK market here had been depressed.

“Low-cost airlines have also made it easy for people to hop on a plane.”

Chris Palmer, chief executive of the estate agent Cluttons Resorts said: “About 5 per cent of the UK adult population now owns an overseas property and this figure is likely to double over the next decade.

“The unpredictable British climate continues to be the main factor behind the increased demand for second homes abroad and the steady advance of cheap overseas flight has encouraged British buyers to become far less parochial in terms of overseas destinations.”

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