Bulgarians leave parental home on average at age 30 – Eurostat
Bulgarians leave their parental homes at an average age of 30, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said on August 12, citing figures for 2019.
In this respect, Bulgaria is in fourth place in the EU, behind Croatia, Slovakia and Italy.
In 2019, the share of young people aged 25 to 34 who were living with their parents ranged across the EU member states from less than 10 per cent in Denmark (four per cent), Finland (4.8 per cent) and Sweden (5.7 per cent), to more than half in Slovakia (56.4 per cent in 2018), Greece (57.8 per cent) and Croatia (62 per cent).
In Bulgaria, the figure for those aged 25 to 34 still living with their parents was 48.8 per cent, with a significant gender divide. For men in this age group, the figure was 63.3 per cent, while for women it was 33.2 per cent.
In almost all EU countries, young women tended to leave the parental household earlier than men. The only exception was Luxembourg (20.3 years for women, compared with 20 years for men).
The largest differences between the genders were registered in Romania (25.7 years for women, compared with 30.3 for men), Bulgaria (27.6 vs. 32.1), Croatia (29.9 vs. 33.6), Latvia (24.8 vs. 28.1), Hungary (25.8 vs. 28.5) and Slovakia (29.6 vs. 32.1).
Young adults in Croatia and Slovakia remained the longest in the parental household, Eurostat said.
They left home on average at the age of 31.8 and 30.9 years, respectively. Young adults in Italy (30.1 years), Bulgaria (30 years), Malta (29.9 years), Spain (29.5 years), Portugal (29.0 years) and Greece (28.9 years) also remained with their parents for longer.
Eurostat said that leaving the parental household is often affected by whether or not young people are in a relationship with partner or studying, their level of financial (in)dependence, labour market conditions, the affordability of housing but also cultural particularities.
On average, young people in the EU left the parental household at the age of 26.2 years in 2019. However, this age varied significantly across the EU member states.
In 2019, young people left home earliest in the three northern member states – Sweden (17.8 years), Denmark (21.1 years) and Finland (21.8 years), as well as in Luxembourg (20.1 years). Young people also left home before the age of 25 in Estonia (22.2 years), France (23.6 years), Germany and the Netherlands (both 23.7 years), Eurostat said.
(Photo: Daniel Wildman)
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