Estimating the Scale of Youth Homelessness in the UK

The University of Cambridge carried out research to produce an up-to-date estimate of the number of young people aged 16 to 24 experiencing homelessness during the course of a year. Key findings were:

·       Over 83,000 homeless young people have been accommodated by local authorities or homelessness services during 2013-14

·       Nine per cent of UK young people have slept in an ‘outside’ place in the last year, including on the street, in car parks or parks, because they had nowhere else to go

·       1.3m young people aged 16 to 24 have slept in an unsafe place because they had nowhere else to go.

·       35 per cent of UK young people have experience of sofa surfing which would suggest over a million 16-25 year olds having done so nationally

Download the report from the University of Cambridge website.