Archive:Age of young people leaving their parental household
Data extracted in August 2020
Planned article update: August 2021.
Highlights
The moving out from parental home is considered as a milestone in the transition from childhood to adulthood. The reasons behind this step may vary a lot: from being materially independent, studying, working to moving in with a partner or getting married and having children, etc. However, the path to independence may not be straightforward and happen, as will be shown in this article, at different age across countries. This difference may reflect the dissimilar challenges that young people face across Europe, as well as the variety of cultural particularities in the different countries.
This article presents data on the average age of leaving the parental home in the European Union (EU) and in the EU Member States since 2002. Special attention is brought on the geographical and gender differences, as well as on the evolution since 2002.
Full article
Geographical differences
Map 1 indicates that in 2019, on average across the whole EU-27, young people leave the parental home at the age of 26.2 years. This average however varies among the different EU countries. Croatia, Slovakia, Italy and Bulgaria recorded the oldest average ages of leaving the parental home, all four in the category 30 years and over. In contrast, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and Finland corresponded to the youngest average ages, i.e. less than 22 years. The lowest average age of young people leaving their parental household was observed in Sweden (17.8 years) and the highest in Croatia (31.8 years). When including the non-EU countries, the highest age could be seen in Montenegro, where the estimated age of young people leaving their parental household was 33.1 years on average.
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)
Map 1 suggests that in most northern and western countries, on average young people left home in their early twenties, while in southern and eastern states the average age for leaving home was in the late twenties or early thirties. It is worth noticing that Luxembourg and Slovakia differentiate sensibly with their neighbouring countries in this aspect.
Countries can be clustered in six groups based on the 2019 data. In the first group, made of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden, young people left their parental household on average before 24 years old in 2019. The second group, which comprises Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, corresponds to an average age of leaving the parental home between 24 and 26 years old. Cyprus, Czechia, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland formed the third and the largest group (in terms of number of countries) with young people leaving their parental household on average after 26 years old but before 28 years old. Countries with an average age of leaving the parental household situated between 28 and 30 years old in 2019 make the fourth group; these are Greece, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey. In the fifth group, including Bulgaria, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, Spain and Serbia, young people got out their parents’ household on average after 30 but before 32 years old in 2019. Finally, the sixth and smallest group corresponds to an average age of young people leaving their parental home at 32 years old or after in 2019, is made of Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
Gender differences
On average, young women moved out from the parental home earlier than young men in almost all considered countries (Figure 1). This may be a sign that women are more prone to join their husband’s household after marriage (or consensual union), forming a multi-generational household with their husband’s parents. The only exception was Luxembourg where women left their parental household 0.3 years later than men did.
.png)
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)
The sex gap between these averages in EU-27 level was 1.9 years in 2019 and was largest in Romania (4.6), Bulgaria (4.5), Croatia (3.7) and Latvia (3.3 years). However, considering and the Candidate countries, the gap was larger in Serbia (5.3) and North Macedonia (7.6 years). On the opposite side, the gap was smallest in Sweden (0.4), Denmark (0.5) and Estonia (0.6 years) in favour of men and in Luxembourg (0.3 years) in favour of women.
There is a positive correlation between the age of young people in which they are leaving their parental household (on total) and the size of the sex gap. This means that in the countries where the young people left their parental household at later ages, there was more likely to have more pronounced sex difference. As examples could be given North Macedonia (total average: 31.8, males: 35.6, females: 28.0 years), Serbia (total average: 31.1, males: 33.7, females: 28.4 years) and Bulgaria (total average: 30.0, males: 32.1, females: 27.6 years). In contrast, in the countries where young people left their parental homes at early ages, the sex difference is less likely to be so pronounced. For example in the countries where young people parted with their parent’s home at age bellow 22 years, the mean difference between sexes amounts to less than one year (0.7).
Development over the years
In the period from 2002 to 2006, the age of young people leaving their parental household in EU-27 slightly increased, respectively from 26.5 to 26.8 years. After this period, the age has slowly but steadily decreased and reached 26.2 years in 2019, or it decreased with 0.6 years since 2006 (Figure 2). This decrease is observed in a little bit than half of the EU countries, for which data for 2006 is available. In 12 of them, this age decreased and in another 11 this age increased since 2006. In Austria (25.4 years in 2019) and Romania (28.1 years in 2019), this age remained unchanged in comparison to 2006, although it had some fluctuations over the years. The largest decrease among the EU Member States could be observed in Luxembourg (-6.1), followed by Estonia (-3.1), Lithuania (-2.8) and Slovenia (-2.0 years), on the other hand, the largest increase in this age was in Ireland (+1.5), followed by Croatia (+1.3), Bulgaria (+1.1) and Slovakia (+1.0 years).
.png)
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Source: Statistics presented in this article are derived from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The EU-LFS is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 and over. It covers residents in private households and excludes those in collective households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between the countries.
Reference period: Yearly results are obtained as averages of the four quarters in the year.
Coverage: The results from the EU-LFS currently cover all European Union Member States, the United Kingdom, the EFTA Member States of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, as well as the candidate countries Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. For Cyprus, the survey covers only the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Nevertheless, EU-LFS household data are not available for Iceland, Norway, Switzerland. This is the reason why statistics are not available in this article for these three countries.
Country codes: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Czechia (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Croatia (HR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE), the United Kingdom (UK), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Switzerland (CH), Montenegro (ME), North Macedonia (MK), Serbia (RS) and Turkey (TR). European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU-27 Member States. If data are unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates takes into account the data for the same country for the most recent period available. Such cases are indicated.
Methodological note
In the calculation of the estimated average age of leaving the parental household, the proportion of persons living in households without their parents to the total population per every single age from 15 to 34 years (separately for males and females) is taken into consideration. After this procedure is calculated so-called ‘exit probability’ per every single age from 15 to 34. The exit probability equals the mentioned above proportion minus the corresponding proportion of the preceding age, e.g. the proportion of 16 years olds minus the proportion of 15 years olds. As 15 years is the start point, its exit probability equals exactly the proportion of persons living in households without their parents aged 15 years to the total population of 15 years olds. This calculation is done successively until the age of 34.
It is assumed that From 34 to 38 all persons start living in households without their parent, i.e. the proportion of persons living in households without their parents reaches 100 % (probability of 1.0) from 34 to 38. Therefore, the age 38 years is considered as an ‘ultimate age’, although it creates discontinuity compared with the penultimate age. This does not mean that all 38 years olds live without their parents, but rather at this age, this probability is height enough to assume that and approaches 1.0. Furthermore, if we continue to calculate the probability for ages after 38 (39, 40, 41 …), it will cause negligible disturbance of the final result, therefore it is not necessary. The age 38 is also added to the mentioned above summation.
Context
In addition to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is also a source of household statistics. The EU-SILC is a multi-purpose instrument which focuses mainly on income. However, information on housing conditions, social exclusion, labour and education is also collected.
Direct access to
Main tables
- Title(s) of second level folder (if any)
- Title(s) of third level folder (if any)
Database
- Title(s) of second level folder (if any)
- Title(s) of third level folder (if any)
Dedicated section
Publications
Publications in Statistics Explained (either online publications or Statistical articles) should be in 'See also' above
Methodology
<link to ESMS file, methodological publications, survey manuals, etc.>
- Crime and criminal justice (ESMS metadata file — crim_esms)
- Title of the publication
Legislation
- Use Eur-Lex icon on the ribbon tool at the top of the statistical article to enter the year and reference of your regulation or directive.
- See example of what should be issued hereafter
- Regulation (EU) No 1013/2016
Visualisations
- Regional Statistics Illustrated - select statistical domain 'xxx' (= Agriculture, Economy, Education, Health, Information society, Labour market, Population, Science and technology, Tourism or Transport) (top right)
External links
Notes
<footnote text will be automatically inserted if reference tags are used in article content text (use reference icon on ribbon)>
[[Category:<Subtheme category name(s)>|Name of the statistical article]] [[Category:<Statistical article>|Name of the statistical article]]
Delete [[Category:Model|]] below (and this line as well) before saving!