Age of leaving the parental home steady in 2023

In 2023, young people across the EU left their parental home on average at the age of 26.3 years, down from 26.4 years the year before.

The highest average ages, of 30 years or above, were recorded in Croatia (31.8 years), Slovakia (31.0), Greece (30.6), Spain (30.4), Bulgaria and Italy (both 30.0). In contrast, the lowest average ages, all under 23 years old, were registered in Finland (21.4 years), Sweden and Denmark (both 21.8), and Estonia (22.8). 

Source dataset: yth_demo_030

One quarter of young people living in overcrowded households

In 2023, 26.0% of young people aged 15-29 in the EU lived in overcrowded households. The overcrowding rate for young people was 9.2 percentage points (pp) higher than the overcrowding rate for the overall population (16.8%).

At country level, Romania (59.4%), Bulgaria (55.3%) and Latvia (54.8%) had the highest overcrowding rates for young people. By contrast, the lowest rates were found in Malta (3.9%), Cyprus (4.0%) and Ireland (4.4%). 

Source dataset: ilc_lvho05a

Across all EU countries, the overcrowding rate was higher for the young population than for the total population, with 11 EU countries showing differences of more than 10 pp. 

The largest differences between the overcrowding rates for young people and the overall population were observed in Bulgaria (+20.4 pp), Romania (+19.4 pp) and Greece (+18.5 pp). Conversely, the lowest differences were recorded in Ireland (+0.5 pp), Malta (+1.5 pp) and Cyprus (+1.8 pp).