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Archive:Age of young people leaving their parental household

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Data extracted in August 2020

Planned article update: August 2021.


Highlights

In 2019, young people left their parental home on average in the EU at the age of 26.2 years.
Sweden recorded in 2019 the lowest average age of young people leaving their parental home (17.8 years) and Croatia the highest (31.8 years).
Young women moved out from the parental home earlier than young men in almost all EU Member States.


Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)


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 to studying, working, moving in with a partner, getting married and having children, etc. However, the path to independence may not be straightforward and may 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. Special attention is brought on the geographical and gender differences, as well as on the evolution since 2006.


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Geographical differences

Map 1 indicates that in 2019, on average across the whole EU-27, young people left 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.

Map 1: Estimated average age of young people leaving the parental household, 2019
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 includes 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 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. Finally, the sixth and smallest group is made of Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia and corresponds to an average age of 32 years or above for people leaving their parental home.

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 partner’s household or forming a multi-generational household with their husband’s parents. The only exception in 2019 was Luxembourg where women left their parental household 0.3 years later than men.

Figure 1: Estimated average age of young people leaving the parental household by sex, 2019
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)

The gender gap between the average ages of leaving the parents' home was 1.9 years at EU level in 2019. It was the largest in Romania (4.6 years), Bulgaria (4.5 years), Croatia (3.7 years) and Latvia (3.3 years). However, considering also the candidate countries, the gap was larger in North Macedonia (7.6 years) and Serbia (5.3 years). In contrast, the gap was the smallest in Sweden (0.4 year), Denmark (0.5 year) and Estonia (0.6 year) in favour of men, and in Luxembourg (0.3 year) in favour of women.

A positive correlation can be observed between the average age of young people leaving their parental household and the size of the gender gap. Indeed, in countries where young people are leaving their parental household at later ages, a more pronounced gender difference is generally present. Examples are Bulgaria (with an average age of 30.0 years and a gender difference of 4.5 years), North Macedonia (average: 31.8 years, gender difference: 7.6 years) and Serbia (average: 31.1 years, gender difference: 5.3 years). In contrast, in countries where young people left their parental homes at early ages, the gender difference is generally less pronounced. Sweden, Luxembourg and Denmark corresponding to average age smaller than 22 years (17.8 years, 20.1 years and 21.1 years respectively) recorded gender differences of half a year or less (0.4 year, 0.3 year and 0.5 year respectively).

Development over the years

In the period from 2002 to 2006, the average 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 average age slowly but steadily decreased to reach 26.2 years in 2019. Consequently, it decreased by 0.6 years between 2006 and 2019 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Estimated average age of young people leaving the parental household, 2006 and 2019
Source: Eurostat (yth_demo_030)

The decrease of the average age between 2006 and 2019 can be observed in half of the EU Member States for which data for 2006 is available: in 12 EU Member States the average age decreased, while it increased in 11 EU Member States and was unchanged in two EU Member States. The largest decrease among the EU Member States, in the period 2006-2019, can be found in Luxembourg (-6.1 years), followed by Estonia (-3.1 years), Lithuania (-2.8 years) and Slovenia (-2.0 years). On the other hand, the largest increase is observed in Ireland (+1.5 years), followed by Croatia (+1.3 years), Bulgaria (+1.1 years) and Slovakia (+1.0 years). In Austria and Romania, the average age remains unchanged between 2006 and 2019 (25.4 years for Austria and 28.1 years for Romania), although it had some fluctuations over the years in that period.

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.

Five different articles on detailed technical and methodological information is linked from the overview page EU labour force survey.

Methodological note

The average age at which young people leave home is a proximate measure based on whether or not respondents and their parents are living in the same household. A calculation is made for each single year of age in the age range 15 to 34. In the calculation, the share of respondents living in households without their parents to the total population (separately for males and females) is taken into consideration. A so-called ‘exit probability’ for each single year of age in the age range 15 to 34 is calculated for the total, male and female populations. The exit probability equals the above-mentioned share minus the corresponding share for the preceding age (e.g. the share for the 16 years old people minus the share for 15 years old people). As 15 years is the start point, its exit probability equals the share of people aged 15 years living without their parents to the total population aged 15 years. The calculation is done successively until the age of 34.

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.

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Population by household composition and number of children or age of youngest child (lfst_hh_p)
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Distribution of households by household size (source: SILC) (ilc_lvph03)
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Housing (cens_hnhsng)
Households by size (number of persons) (cens_hndwsize)
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