We’re in top 3 for rent hikes
YOUNG Irish adults are likely to be still living at home with their parents into their late twenties.
Figues published by the European Commission show the average age in 2021 of Irish people before they moved out of the family home was 27.9 years.
That’s the 12th highest average age among the 27 EU member states, and just above the EU average of 26.5 years.
The figures show that young Irish males are more likely to stay living with their parents than Irish females – a trend mirrored in all other countries in Europe for which statistics were available.
Men left their parental home, on average, after the age of 30 in 11 EU countries, while that was the case for women in only two countries – Portugal and Croatia.
Reduction
The average age for Irish males to move out of home last year was 28.3 years compared to 27.4 years for females.
At 0.9 years Ireland had the third narrowest gap between young males and females moving out of home among EU member states after Sweden and Denmark.
Last year’s average for both sexes in Ireland of 27.9 years showed a slight reduction on the 2020 figure of 28.1 years.
However, there has been a steady increase in the average age before young Irish people find their own place to live over the past decade.
The pattern is directly opposite to the longterm trend across the EU in general — where the average age for men has fallen from a peak of 28.0 years in 2006 to a low of 27.1 years in 2019.
There has been less fluctuation among the average age for women moving out of the family home across the EU – down from 25.5 years to 25.2 years over the same period.
Increase
The European Commission said the average age had recorded its biggest year-on-year increase since 2006 in 2020.
“This important change was probably triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, which might have led young people to reconsider moving out and deciding to remain a bit longer at their parents’ home,” a spokesperson said.
The bucking of the trend of falling average age before young adults spread their wings in Ireland is likely to be linked to the current housing crisis in terms of high rents and shortage of accommodation.
The European Commission said there was also a correlation between the age of leaving home and being in employment.
“Those countries where young people leave the parental household at an older age are more likely to have a lower labour force participation rate,” the spokesperson added.
THE trend of people staying at home with their parents is more than likely connected to the current housing crisis.
And recent EU figures also found that over the period 2010 until the first quarter of 2022, rents increased by 16.9 per cent and house prices by 44.7 per cent.
Rents and house prices in the EU have continued their steady increase in the first quarter of 2022, going up by 1.4 per cent and
10.5 per cent respectively, compared with the first quarter of 2021.
The increase in EU house prices and rents have been highest in Estonia, Lithuania and Ireland.