People in England and Wales were much more likely to move home in the 1970s than in the first decade of the 2000s, says research by population experts. The study, based on census data over 40 years, shows a picture of people becoming progressively less mobile, for both renters and homeowners.
Dr Ian Shuttleworth, from Queen's University Belfast, says there had been a long term "change in behaviour". He said this lack of movement could be part of a slowdown in social mobility.
The research, part of an international demographic project, shows that at least a million fewer people moved between 2001 and 2011 compared with 1971 to 1981, once other changes in population have been taken into account.
It shows that the pattern of people moving up the housing ladder - and expecting to keep moving to a bigger or better home or more desirable location - was much more common in the 1970s and 1980s than in the 2000s. They might also put up with longer commutes rather than move for work, say the researchers.
The researchers thought that such a big drop in moving home could have been driven by an ageing population, with older people less likely to move house. But this only accounted for about a third of the change and there was a similar pattern common across other age groups.
