The rise of the so-called “boomerang generation” is laid bare in official figures showing that almost one in five graduates in their late 20s now live with their parents.

By contrast, only one in eight university graduates had failed to fly the nest by the same age 20 years ago, research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.

It also found that grown-up sons are twice as likely as their sisters to still be living with their parents in their late 20s.

With nearly a quarter of men approaching 30 still living at home, the findings are bound to lead to claims of a "generation of mummy's boys".

Rising property prices, mounting student debts and the effects of recession on the job market have forced a wave of young people to move back into the family home at an age when they would normally be moving out.

Young professionals in their late 20s or early 30s have been nicknamed the “boomerang generation” because of the trend toward returning to the family home having initially left to study.

Recent research has suggested that young people in Britain are twice as likely to chose to live with their parents in their late 20s than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.

But commentators warned that the phenomenon may have more to do with young people facing “dire” prospects than simply a desire to save money.

While the proportion of those of university or college age moving out from the family home has continued to rise in the last 20 years, among those in their mid and late 20s the trend has been reversed.

Overall 1.7 million people aged from 22 to 29 now share a roof with their parents, including more than 760,000 in their late 20s, the ONS figures suggest.

In 1988 22.7 per cent of men aged 25 to 29 were still living with their parents but last year the proportion was 24.5 per cent, according to the ONS.

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.)

(Agencies)