Europeans leave their parents to live independently at the age of 18? Boys are more likely to "nibble on the old" than girls? Official EU figures are coming

In the past two years since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, various lockdown and isolation measures have caused a serious negative impact on production and life. A French survey report shows that young people under the age of 30 are the first victims of the COVID-19 crisis on an economic level. Eurostat data shows that in 2020, due to various reasons such as blockages in learning and training, and difficulties in employment due to the downturn in the labor market, young people in Europe are leaving their parents to live independently, while men usually live longer than women live with their parents.

French newspaper Le Figaro reported that due to the new crown epidemic, more and more young Europeans are choosing to stay at their parents' homes and postpone their independent living plans. According to Eurostat, the average age of young people living alone in the EU in 2020 was 26.4 years old.

In Croatia, two-thirds of the 25-34-year-old group lives with their parents, compared with 6% in Sweden, the lowest in Europe.

In France, 11% of the 25-34 age group lived in their parents' home in 2019, increasing to 16% in 2020, while the proportion of 25-34-year-olds living with their parents in Portugal increased from 45% in 2019 to 52% in 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more young Europeans are choosing to stay at their parents' homes and postpone their independent living plans. The picture shows young people in Paris resting in a park. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)

01. North and South differ greatly

In general, young people in Northern and Western European countries mostly live independently from their parents in their early twenties, while young people in Southern and Eastern European countries wait until they are around thirty years old. Relatively speaking, young people in the mediterranean countries are more "homesick" and "out of the nest" age is over 30 years old: Portugal is 30 years old, Malta and Italy are 30.2 years old, Slovakia is 30.9 years old, and Croatia is the highest at 32.4 years old.

The three countries with the earliest independent lives were Sweden at 17.5 years old, Luxembourg at 19.8 years old and Denmark at 21.2 years old.

Why are the differences between Northern and Southern Europe so great? Eurostat believes that this is related to a number of factors such as emotional life, academics, the level of economic independence, the job market situation and housing prices. In addition, different family cultural traditions are also one of the reasons for the differences in Northern and Southern Europe: in Southern Europe, marriage is still the main opportunity for children to leave their parents' homes and start an independent life, while throughout Europe, especially in Western Europe, the median age of marriage continues to increase, which also objectively delays the age of young people "leaving the nest".

02. The "departure from the nest" time has been postponed for ten years

In the decade from 2010 to 2020, young people in about a dozen EU countries "left the nest" late: the average age of young people living alone without their parents in Ireland was delayed from 25 years in 2010 to 28 years in 2020, the age of independent life in Spain and Croatia increased by one year, and France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom also slightly postponed.

In Luxembourg, Sweden and Estonia, young people leave their parents' lives at the earliest rate: From 26 in 2010 to 20 in 2020, Sweden from 20 to 17.5 and Estonia from 24 to 22.

03. Employment affects the independence of young people

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is becoming increasingly important for young people to leave their parents and live alone and find work to achieve financial independence. The data show that in countries where young people are slow to leave their parents' homes, youth employment rates are also relatively low: in southern European countries such as Italy and Greece (30 years old for independent living), the employment rate for young people aged 15 to 29 is less than 30%.

04. Men "leave the nest" later than women

In addition, Eurostat found that men (27.4 years) generally leave their parents' homes later than women (25.4 years), with the exception of Sweden, where boys leave home earlier than girls (a difference of 0.1 years).

The largest gender-independent age gap is in Romania: 30 years for men and 25.5 years for women, a difference of 4.5 years, followed by Bulgaria: 32 years for men and 27.8 years for women, with a difference of 4.2 years. Young People in Croatia are the latest to become independent in the EU: 34 for men and 30.9 for women, a difference of 3.1 years. Sweden, Luxembourg and Estonia had the smallest gender gaps, at 0.1, 0.4 and 0.5 years, respectively.

Studies have pointed out that there are two main reasons for the age gap between men and women: one is that women usually start a family earlier than men (men marry 3.7 years later than women worldwide); second, men and girls are treated differently at home: boys usually receive more care from their parents, while girls are more willing to leave their parents for an independent new life.

05. The government is helping young people become independent

Spain pays young people a monthly "housing check" of 250 euros

Spain will pay a monthly subsidy of 250 euros for 18- to 35-year-olds for two years to help young workers who cannot afford to rent a house to leave their parents' homes and live independently, according to the Newspaper des Estées de France.

The average age of young people in Spain "leaving the nest" is 29.5 years, which is much higher than the average age of 26 years in the European Union, and the NEW CROWN epidemic may make the situation worse. In order to help young people solve the housing problem, the Spanish government plans to unfreeze 200 million euros in 2022 and issue a monthly "housing check" of 250 euros for young people aged 18 to 35 years who earn less than 23725 euros for two years.

The average monthly income of young people under the age of 30 in Spain is 973 euros, and the unemployment rate for young people under the age of 25 is as high as 33%, the highest in Europe.

• France expands the Youth Security Program to help young people find employment

According to the Poverty Report released last year by the Observatoire des inégalités, 5.3 million poor people in France lived on less than €885 a month, or 8.3 percent of the population, in 2018, with more than half (52 percent) under the age of 30. The Observatory reports that the average living standard for young people is "half as low as that of the French", and that the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to exacerbate the plight of young people under the age of 30.

To this end, the French government promised at the beginning of this year to lower the standard of the "Youth Protection Program" to include young people with short-term contracts; to extend the one-year period of work and expand the types of work to expand the number of beneficiaries of the program to 200,000 people.

The "Youth Protection Scheme" was a system created during the Hollande administration. The Government provides a monthly subsidy of up to €497 per month for young people aged 16 to 25 who are "neither employed, nor educated nor trained", provided that the beneficiaries participate in local integration programmes. According to the Department of Labor, by the end of 2019, 43 percent of beneficiaries (75 percent of whom do not have a bachelor's degree) have thus been given jobs, training, part-time contracts or entrepreneurial opportunities.

French Labour Minister Elisabeth Borne stressed that for young people, the program is better than simply giving them a "Solidarity Employment Income" (RSA) because the Youth Guarantee Program can help them get on the job track rather than just paying money.

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(Editor: Zhao Xiao)