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Archive:Age of young people leaving their parental household

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

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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 - leaving the parental home to study or work, being materially independent, moving in with a partner or getting married and having children or not and so on. However, the path to independence may not be straightforward and happen, as will be shown below, 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.

Figure 1 indicates that in 2019, on average across the whole EU-27, young people did not leave the parental home until the age of 26.2 years. This average varies among the different EU countries. In Croatia, Slovakia, Italy and Bulgaria it was 30 years and over, whilst in Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and Finland it was less than 22. The lowest age of young people leaving their parental household was observed in Sweden - 17.8 years, and the highest in Croatia - 31.8 years. However, taking into account and non-EU countries, the highest age could be seen in Montenegro, where estimated age of young people leaving their parental household was 33.1 years on average.

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 Estonia are closer to the Nordic part of Europe in this dimension with an average age of young people leaving their parental household was, respectively 20.1 and 22.2 years.

If we look at the rounded values of Map 1 we may distinguish five country groups. In the first group, comprised of Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden, young people left their parental household at age less than 23 years. In the second group, (Belgium, Austria, United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands) young people did the same at age around 24 - 25 years. Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Czechia and Lithuania formed the third group with an average age of young people living their parental household around 26 - 27 years. Around 28 - 29 years were the age of leaving the parental household of young people in Greece, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey, which comprise the fourth group. Finally, in the fifth group, (Montenegro, Croatia, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy and Malta) young people get out their parents’ household at age around 30 years and more.

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

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Sex differences

On average, young women moved out of the parental home earlier than young men in almost all considered countries in 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 Luxemburg where women left their parental household 0.3 years later than men did.

The sex gap between these averages in EU-27 level was 1.9 years 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 largest 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 Luxemburg (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 increased, respectively from 26.5 to 26.8 years. After this period, the age has steadily decreased and reached 26.2 years in 2019, or it decreased with 0.6 years since 2006. 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 saw this age decrease 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), Estonia (-3.1) and Lithuania (-2.8 years), on the other hand, the largest increase in this age was in Ireland (+1.5), Croatia (+1.3) and Bulgaria (+1.1 years).

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Methodology

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.

Estimated age of young people leaving their parental household = ∑_(a = 15-34)▒〖a x e〗 (e) exit probability = Pa - Pa-1 (P) proportion of persons, living in households without their parents (a) single age (15-34)

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.

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