WARSAW, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Job prospects, housing affordability and family traditions help explain why young Europeans leave the parental home at widely varying ages, according to the latest Eurostat data.
In Finland, young people left home at an average age of 21.4 in 2025, compared with 31.5 in Croatia -- a gap of about a decade within the European Union (EU).
Employment data reveal a clear divide across the bloc.
In 2025, 65.5 percent of people aged 20 to 29 in the EU were employed. Eurostat data showed that in most countries where young people left the parental home earlier than the EU average, the employment rate among 20- to 29-year-olds was above the bloc's average.
The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Sweden were among those countries, while Greece, Croatia, Spain and Italy combined later home-leaving with lower youth employment rates.
Poland, however, shows that favorable labor-market figures do not necessarily translate into earlier home-leaving. The country's overall unemployment rate stood at 3.1 percent in 2025, the second-lowest in the EU alongside Malta and behind only the Czech Republic's 2.8 percent, according to separate Eurostat data.
Despite the relatively strong labor market, young people in Poland left the parental home at an average age of 26.8 in 2025, slightly above the EU average of 26.3.
Housing data reveal another constraint. According to Eurostat, young people bear a heavier housing burden than the population as a whole.
A 2025 report by Eurofound, the EU agency for improving living and working conditions, said young adults were disproportionately affected by Europe's housing affordability crisis.
Young adults often have lower incomes or less secure jobs while seeking homes in major cities, where demand and prices are typically highest.
Since 2010, average house prices in the EU have risen by 55.4 percent and rents by 26.7 percent.
In many areas of Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain, rent for a standard two-room apartment could absorb more than 80 percent of the median wage, according to Eurofound.
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, compared with 7.7 percent of the overall population. Young people were also more likely to live in overcrowded homes, with the rate reaching 26.9 percent, 10.1 percentage points above the overall figure.
Eurofound said unaffordable housing was forcing some young people into living arrangements they would not otherwise choose, affecting their education, employment opportunities, well-being and family formation.
Employment and housing costs, however, do not fully explain the divide.
Eurofound research also suggests that cultural context plays a role, with more individualized family systems in Nordic and some Central European countries and stronger intergenerational ties across much of Southern Europe.
Nearly half of EU residents aged 18 to 34 -- 49.8 percent -- lived with at least one parent or contributed to or benefited from the parental household income in 2025, according to Eurostat.
The share ranged from under 26 percent in Nordic EU countries to 75.3 percent in Croatia.
The figures reveal a deeply uneven pattern across the EU, with young people in some countries leaving home about a decade earlier than in others, as housing constraints and job opportunities shape evolving trends.
