The idea that young people today are forming fewer romantic relationships has become a familiar piece of generational commentary. A new study suggests the trend is more pronounced than earlier data captured, and that previous estimates may have been underestimating the size of the shift.
Dr. Maximiliane Uhlich, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel, compared two rounds of the same survey: one capturing millennials at a specific life stage and another capturing Gen Z at the same age range, collected between 2022 and 2024.
The headline finding: 49 percent of Gen Z adults reported being in any kind of steady relationship, compared with 57 percent of millennials at the same age, a gap of eight percentage points.
What changed
The decline is driven primarily by a reduction in cohabitation. Fewer Gen Z adults live with a partner compared with millennials at the same age. But the researchers found that earlier studies had been missing a key group: couples who are in committed relationships but maintain separate residences, known as Living Apart Together, or LAT, relationships.
When LAT couples are properly counted, the gap between generations widens further, because Gen Z is more likely than millennials were to be in a relationship without sharing a home.
“This seems a bit unprecedented,” Uhlich told New Scientist.
Why the gap
The research points to several likely drivers. Gen Z is the first generation to have grown up with social media and smartphones throughout their formative years, which shapes how they approach social connection and relationship formation. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted social interaction during a critical period for forming romantic relationships. A difficult housing market in many countries makes cohabitation economically harder. And rising individualism, documented in a related study, may lead people to prioritize personal goals and non-romantic relationships differently than previous generations.
What it does not mean
The researchers are careful to note that the trend is not necessarily negative. Rising individualism can mean people invest more deeply in friendships, family bonds, and personal pursuits. The long-term consequences of spending more of early adulthood single, whether positive, negative, or both, are still not well understood.
The data captures a point-in-time comparison at matched ages, not a controlled experiment. Generational boundaries are inherently somewhat arbitrary, and survey data can capture different things depending on how “steady relationship” is defined. The value of this study is that it applies a consistent definition across both generations.
For social scientists tracking what Uhlich calls a “relationship recession,” the key question is whether Gen Z’s patterns represent a delay, people forming relationships later but eventually reaching similar rates, or a permanent shift toward a less relationship-centered life structure. The answer will take another decade of data to reveal.
Source: Wong, C. (2026). The relationship recession is even bigger for Gen Z than we thought. New Scientist, Issue 3599, June 13, 2026. Based on research by Dr. Maximiliane Uhlich, University of Basel (Department of Psychology). Underlying data from a longitudinal survey comparing two generational cohorts at matched age ranges.