Leaving home in the European Union

This paper examines the factors which influence young people’s decision to stay in the parental home or to leave home. It is found to be important to distinguish between destinations on leaving home, since different characteristics are associated with exits to different destinations. The distinction is first made between those leaving home as singles, with a partner, and for educational purposes; and then between those who leave to become owner occupiers, private tenants and public tenants. Large differences are evident between countries. One finding of the paper is that in Nordic countries young people from better-off backgrounds are more likely to leave home as part of a couple, and are more likely to become homeowners, while in Southern countries young people from better-off backgrounds are less likely to leave home in a couple or to become homeowners. This suggests that parents’ and children’s preferences for independence versus family closeness differ between countries, and contribute (together with differences in young people’s socio-economic situations) to the widely differing patterns of living arrangements observed across Europe. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY This paper examines the factors which influence young people’s decision to stay in the parental home or to leave home in Europe, investigating which factors are important in the home-leaving decision, and whether these factors vary between countries. A sizeable body of work exists on this issue for single countries, but little research has been done in a comparative framework. Analysis is based on data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), which contains comparable longitudinal data from 15 countries across the EU. The same individuals in the data set are interviewed each year, and all members of participating households are interviewed: hence, for young people living at home, information is available not only on the young people themselves, but also on their parents. This is extremely useful since young people’s home-leaving decisions are likely to be affected by characteristics of their parents, such as parental income. At the time of writing, four years of data are available for most countries, providing three possible points in time at which young people in the sample may be observed leaving the parental home between one year and the next. Descriptive analysis shows that there are large differences in the age at which youngsters leave home: for example, in Denmark, half of all young men have left home well before 22 years of age, while in Italy, it is not until almost age 30 that half of all men have left home. There are also significant differences in young people’s destinations on leaving home: in Nordic countries, where home-leaving typically occurs very early, it is more common to leave home to live as a single person, while in Southern European countries, where home-leaving typically occurs much later, it is more common to leave home to live with a partner. Interestingly, however, this relationship which is so strong between countries, is absent or weak within individual countries. The multivariate analysis treats different destinations on leaving home separately, since previous research (as well as the findings in this paper) suggests that different characteristics may be associated with different destinations. The distinction is first made between young people leaving home as singles, those leaving with a partner, and those leaving for educational purposes; the distinction is also made between those who leave home to become owner occupiers, private tenants and public tenants. Large differences are evident between countries. One finding of the paper is that in Nordic countries young people from better-off backgrounds are more likely to leave home as part of a couple, and are more likely to become homeowners, while in Southern countries young people from better-off backgrounds are less likely to leave home in a couple or to become homeowners. This suggests that parents’ and children’s preferences for independence versus family closeness differ between countries. It has been asserted that young people in Southern European countries are late in leaving home because of a scarcity of economic opportunities. However, the fact that higher parental incomes in Southern countries are associated with a lower risk of leaving home, suggests that preferences as well as socio-economic factors, are playing a role in delaying home-leaving in these countries.