Job opportunities, housing affordability, and family traditions help explain why young Europeans leave their parents' homes at such different ages. This is according to the latest data from Eurostat. In 2025, 65.5 percent of people aged 20 to 29 were employed in the European Union. Eurostat data show that in most countries where young people leave home earlier than the EU average, employment rates for those aged 20 to 29 were higher than the overall EU average.
In Finland, young people moved out of their parents' homes at an average age of 21.4 years in 2025. In Croatia, it was as late as 31.5 years. The difference between individual countries in the European Union thus reaches approximately ten years.
Employment data show fairly significant differences across the EU.
Among the countries where employment rates for people aged 20 to 29 were higher than the EU average were, for example, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. Conversely, Greece, Croatia, Spain, and Italy were linked to later departures from home with lower employment rates.
However, Poland shows that favorable labor market data do not automatically mean that young people leave their parents' homes earlier. According to separate Eurostat data, the overall unemployment rate in the country was 3.1 percent in 2025. Together with Malta, this was the second lowest value in the EU, just behind the Czech Republic with an unemployment rate of 2.8 percent.
Despite a relatively strong labor market, young people in Poland left their parents' homes at an average age of 26.8 years in 2025, which is slightly later than the EU average of 26.3 years.
Another significant obstacle is housing. According to Eurostat, young people face higher housing costs than the population as a whole.
A report by the Eurofound Foundation from 2025, an EU agency focused on improving living and working conditions, stated that young adults are disproportionately affected by the housing affordability crisis in Europe.
Young people often have lower incomes or less stable jobs, but they are also looking for housing primarily in large cities, where demand and prices are highest.
Since 2010, average property prices in the EU have increased by 55.4 percent, and rents have increased by 26.7 percent.
According to Eurofound, rent for a standard two-room apartment could absorb more than 80 percent of the median wage in many areas of Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and Spain.
In 2025, 9.1 percent of EU residents aged 15 to 29 lived in households that spent at least 40 percent of their disposable income on housing. This proportion was 7.7 percent for the entire population.
Young people also more often live in overcrowded homes. This proportion reached 26.9 percent, which was 10.1 percentage points higher than for the total population.
Eurofound stated that unaffordable housing forces some young people to live in ways they would not otherwise choose. This subsequently affects their education, job opportunities, well-being, and family formation.
However, employment and housing costs alone do not fully explain the differences between individual countries.
Eurofound research suggests that cultural context also plays a significant role. In Nordic and some Central European countries, family systems are more individualized, while in much of Southern Europe, stronger ties persist between generations.
According to Eurostat, in 2025, nearly half of the EU's population aged 18 to 34 – precisely 49.8 percent – lived with at least one parent, or financially contributed to their household, or benefited from its income.
In the Nordic member states of the EU, this proportion was lower than 26 percent, while in Croatia, it reached 75.3 percent.
These figures indicate a significantly uneven situation across the European Union. In some countries, young people leave their parents' home approximately ten years earlier than in others. This trend is strongly influenced by the availability of housing and job opportunities.
Jaroslav Holý