Since this peak, the figures, gathered by the University of York for homelessness charity Centrepoint, have hovered just above the 20,000 mark.
But charity warns that the figures may miss the bigger picture in England because they only record the number of young people put into supported housing.
Scottish statistics suggest that youth homelessness could be on the rise.
In England, people who register with the local authority as homeless need to complete a P1E form, but the information from these forms does not contain data that could be used to monitor youth homelessness levels.
Scotland's equivalent, the HL1, however, does and shows a rise in the number of single homeless 16- to 24-year-olds, from 4,700 in 1990-91 to 9,300 in 2000-01. If, argue the researchers, Scotland's trends are being replicated in England, then youth homelessness is likely to have increased substantially in recent years.
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