The relationship recession is even bigger for Gen Z than we thought

The relationship recession, particularly among young adults, may be bigger than we thought. We knew that not as many members of Gen Z are in a steady relationship than millennials were at their age, but past studies typically didn’t account for partners who lived separately. When taking this into account, it turns out that even fewer Gen Z-ers are in a relationship than we realised.

There are myriad reasons why this may be happening, from growing up with social media to the tough housing market, but researchers are still trying to work out whether long-term singlehood is good or bad for well-being. “We should be cautious to not pathologise this potential choice to be unpartnered,” says Maximiliane Uhlich at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Katherine Twamley at University College London and her colleagues sifted through data from two rounds of a national survey that assessed the relationship status of people in the UK, accounting for all kinds of relationship statuses and living arrangements. During the first round, from 2010 to 2012, the millennial participants – who were born between 1981 and 1996 – were aged between 16 and 29. The second round, from 2022 to 2024, captured Gen Z during the same age range.

This revealed that 57 per cent of millennials reported being in any kind of steady relationship, compared with 49 per cent for Gen Z at the same life stage. “This seems a bit unprecedented,” says Uhlich.

The researchers found that this decline in relationships is mainly due to fewer Gen Z-ers living with their partners than millennials at the same age. This suggests that the relationship recession is even larger than we thought, says Twamley, who presented the results last month at the Love, Actually and in Theory conference in Edinburgh, UK.

The shift in relationships is probably driven by several factors. For one, “Gen Z is the first generation that grew up with social media and smartphones, and this is visible in how they approach interactions,” says Uhlich.

The covid-19 pandemic probably also played a role. “It was during such a sensitive developmental period [for Gen Z],” says Uhlich. “Suddenly, there was no social contact allowed anymore, and there’s research that shows this might have affected their social skills and their ability to form friendships or peer relationships.”

Rising house and rental prices are also forcing Gen Z to live with their parents for longer, which may make it harder for them to form stable relationships, says Twamley.

Conversely, Gen Z-ers may be more careful about the relationships they enter, says Uhlich. “Maybe they have seen the high divorce rates of their parents and want to be more selective and really find the right person before they commit.”

The researchers plan to explore these potential explanations in future studies, says Twamley, and to follow up on another analysis of the Gen Z participants that suggests those who weren’t in stable relationships had worse mental well-being. “It might be that they feel lonely because they’re not in a relationship, or they are not in a relationship because they feel lonely,” she says.