Revealed : How British people’s lives have been changed in the last 30 years

Facts4EU.Org exposes the fundamental changes in what we had and what we have now

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

Using the latest data we show how Brexit Britain has changed – for good or bad

Using the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, we show the shifts in what it was to be British some 30 years ago after Tony Blair came to power, compared to what it looks like today.

We look at the fundamental milestones in life, and how they have changed over the years – either due to modern thinking or because of population change due to immigration.

A Brexit Facts4EU.Org Series on British lifestyle changes

Part I – Starting work, university, moving out, moving in with a partner, marriage, babies (This report)
Part II - Buying your own home, unpaid carer for elderly parents, grandparents, retirement, life expectancy

In this two part series we look at the changing lifestyles of the British people. We summarise the facts and then comment. Then we leave readers to judge the positives and negatives.

British lifestyle changes over the years – Part I

[Source : Latest data from the Office for National Statistics, 08 Apr 2024.]

What follows varies in the time periods specified. All figures are the latest available.

Starting work

It is not until the age of 23 that just over half of the adult population are in full-time work. By the age of 40 this still doesn’t reach 60%, but this masks a huge disparity between men and women. At 40 years old 75% of the male adult population are working full-time, whereas for women it is only 43%.

[Source : Census 2021 from the Office for National Statistics.]

Facts4EU.Org comment : Some decades ago the number of men in full-time work would have started at an earlier age. If almost half the male population are not in employment until the age of 23, what are they doing? We know that under Tony Blair’s reforms of university education around half of these are doing degrees of varying value but this should take them to 21 years old. With more than 1 million job vacancies there is no excuse for the majority not being in work after reaching 21 years old.

Perhaps the even more surprising fact is that 66% more men are working at age 40 than are women.

Going to university

Far more women are now going to university than men. Here are the figures from 30 years ago to 2022.

[Source : UCAS.]

Facts4EU.Org comment : 30 years ago more men than women went to university. By 2022 this had changed dramatically. Now there are 30% more women at university than men. Despite this, the number of women in the workforce by the age of 30 is 35% less than for men.

Moving out of the family home

Contrary to what many would expect, far more men live with their parents than do women. 61% of adults living with their parents in Census 2021 were men

The contrast for both sexes with 10 years previously is stark. In 2021, just 28.7% of adults were living with their parents at the age of 25. Ten years later this had risen to 37.5.% That’s an increase of over 30%. The increase in London was around twice as large than in the rest of England, and around five times the increase seen in Wales.

Facts4EU.Org comment : There can be little doubt that the cost of housing – rented or bought – has been a major factor. With immigration during this period running at record levels, this would indicate that the massive rise in the population due to uncontrolled immigration has increased demand and priced many young people out of the housing market altogether.

Moving in with a partner

In 2021, the age by which half of people who lived in households in England and Wales were living with a partner was 28 years.

Facts4EU.Org comment : Fewer and fewer people overall are now living as couples. It seems that many more prefer to live on their own, if they can afford it. When it comes to marriage, this is a fading institution which we discuss below.

Age at first marriage

Of people aged 25 to 29 years who lived as a couple in 2021, 72% were not married or in a civil partnership.This has increased massively from 56% just 10 years earlier.

Facts4EU.Org comment : When it comes to marriage, this seems to be a fading institution.

Having a first baby

Back in 1970 the average age at which women in England and Wales had their first babies was 23. By 2020 this had risen to 29.

[Source : Births data from the Office for National Statistics.]

COMING UP IN PART II

Buying your own home
Owning your home outright
Being an unpaid carer for elderly parents
Becoming a grandparent
At what age do you retire?
Your life expectancy

Observations

Societies change. In many ways this is a healthy sign. Sometimes, however, statistics can show trends which are not so comfortable for the indigenous population.

If we had to pick one statistic from those we have listed above, it would be the age at which people can leave home. There is no formal evidence we have found yet, but we strongly believe that the massive increase in population due to immigration, combined with the lack of house-building, is having a major impact on the quality of life of so many of our young people.

This also affects the parents of these young people, of course, who must have assumed that their offspring would have flown the nest and the parents could have more time to themselves.

These things are less quantifiable but it does not make them less important.

Government must act with all due alacrity to address this problem. Firstly they must dramatically reduce immigration – legal and illegal – and secondly they must reform the planning laws and get a serious programme of housebuilding started.

Facts4EU.Org needs you today

We are a 'not for profit' team (we make a loss) and any payment goes towards the actual work, not plush London offices, lunch or taxi expenses, or other luxuries of some organisations.

We badly need more of our thousands of readers to become members, to support this work. Could this be you, today? It's quick and easy, we give you a choice of two highly secure payment providers, and we do NOT ask you for further support if you pay once. We just hope you keep supporting us. Your membership stays anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.

Please don't assume that other people will keep us going - we don't receive enough to survive and we need your help today. Could you help us? We rely 100% on public contributions from readers like you.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please join now by clicking on one of the links below or you can use our Support page here. You will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 48 hours. Thank you.

[ Sources: Office for National Statistics | UCAS ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 12 Apr 2024

Click here to go to our news headlines

Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget actually to post your message after you have previewed it!

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 11

1. Sparky , Friday, April 12, 2024, 06:49:

“Education, education, education”. The three drum slogan first used by Julius Ceaser “Veni Vidi Vici”. The New Labour drive to increase University education was a grand ambition but focussed on achieving a headline percentage rate. What degrees were available should have been driven by needs of the country such as doctors and nurses. Similarities to Brexit, slogans but no strategy.

2. terence patrick hewett , Friday, April 12, 2024, 08:49:

The fundamental change since 1945 is the collusion of the major political parties in the ethnic cleansing of the British from their own country. Which is why those political parties, in their present form, have signed their death warrant: a fundamental political re-alignment is taking place, regardless of the extent to which the legacy parties, try and escape their fate by corrupt legislation.

3. Old Albion , Friday, April 12, 2024, 11:59:

The biggest change to Britain (certainly in SE England) over the last thirty years is the Demography. Thirty years of uncontrolled immigration has made many areas of London and Kent like foreign lands.
The white, ostensibly Christian land once known as England is dying rapidly. I'm in my seventies and will probably die before we are wiped out. My sons and Grandchildren will be part of this new imposed multi-cultural hell-hole where Britain once stood.

4. Sparky , Friday, April 12, 2024, 12:06:

2 TPH & 3 OA. And people were taken for food and fooled into believing that Brexit led by Johnson and Gove was going to resolve their issues.

5. Old Albion , Friday, April 12, 2024, 15:11:

Sparky conveniently forgets the UK was forced into 'freedom of movement' by Maastricht in 1992. An act that opened the door to uncontrollable immigration from the EU. Regardless of where the immigrants originated. If they became EU citizens they had automatic right to enter Britain and millions did.

6. Robert Mcdonald , Friday, April 12, 2024, 15:47:

The greatest damage done to the UKs economic capacity was Blairs "education, education, education." The more impactful strategy would have been skills, skills, skills. Just another typical europhile slogan aiming high but missing the target.

7. Gazzablack , Friday, April 12, 2024, 18:30:

By the EU's own admittance, around 80% of all EU legislation is adopted by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV)
.
The notion that the UK somehow had a veto on all decision making, is a false one - and one the EU happily tells you is false..

8. Gazzablack , Friday, April 12, 2024, 19:59:

Did you know?
.
Leaving the EU a!lowed for ID cards from member states to no longer be used for UK entry - IDs that are weak from a security perspective, easily faked.
In 2020, nearly half of all fake IDs caught at the border were fake EU ID cards.
.
.
On March 18th the Govt. announced it was going to use Brexit freedoms to remove tariffs on 120 items primarily used as inputs in domestic production -- reducing production costs for UK manufacturers.
This came into effect on April 11th.
.
Fisheries - Across multiple annual catch quota negotiations, the UK government has been able to secure an increase in quotas of nearly £1 billion in value for UK fishermen in 2024, new figures confirmed this week.
.
Trade - Brexit Britain has become the world's fourth BIGGEST exporter
.
Finance - The Financial Conduct Authority is consulting on plans to remove EU rules that prevented stockbrokers for 'bundling" their research into a package of trading services sold to fund managers since 2018.
The FCA said the current system was too complex and disadvantaged smaller fund managers.
.
Investment - Amazon says it's "actively exploring" investment opportunities with multiple UK start-ups, to deploy it's £800 million fund.
Fund Director Franziska Bossart: "The UK is obviously the most important start-up ecosystem in Europe".

9. Ann Marie , Saturday, April 13, 2024, 02:43:

To Gazzablack: Did you Know
Thanks for that, such a shame that one never hears anything about the good things from Brexit on the mainstream media allowing the likes of Sparky to constantly pontificate the negatives on, and on, and on, just get a life for goodness sake. It's over, you lost.

10. Ann Marie , Saturday, April 13, 2024, 15:13:

Gazza, if it's okay with you I will copy your comment and pass it on. There is an article in the Telegraph today talking about dodging a bullet re the EU Covid recovery fund with the usual remainer drivel in the comments. I am assuming it will be okay, but if not I can delete the comment.

11 comments, page 1 of 2

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.