Housing challenges for young people

European statistics have confirmed over the years the existence of a phenomenon that is not showing any signs of slowing down: more and more young adults, aged 19-34, continue to live with their parents. The dream of leaving home and becoming independent as quickly as possible is no longer a priority for young Europeans, including in Romania. For instance, in 2018, approximately 42% of young Romanians aged 25-34 still lived with their parents, while the latest data shows that their number stands at 2.2 million. The pandemic did little to correct the situation, Romania ranking among Europe's top 10 countries with the highest rates of parent-child coresidence. Ranking first are Croatia, Greece and Slovakia, while Nordic countries such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark are the opposite end. Socilogist Dumitru Sandu, a university lecturer at University of Bucharest, has studied the phenomenon analyzing the recent data.

"In 2020, at European level, 65% of young adults in Croatia lived with their parents, 60% in Greece and 53% in Slovakia. Romania ranked 10th with 43%. In fact, over 2018-2020 a major change occurs that has to do with gender differences. The share of young men aged 24-34 who still lived with their parents stood at 55%. Young women in the same age bracket accounted for 29%. Therefore, we are dealing with a difference of approximately 27%. In terms of gender gaps, Romania ranks 2nd at European level after Bulgaria, where the difference stands at 28%. Therefore, we are witnessing in Europe a gap not between the old EU and the new one, but between geographical extremes. There are southern countries like Croatia, Greece, Slovakia and Romania, which have demographic tendencies similar to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Malta, and then we have Nordic countries, creating a major rift between southern and northern Europe".

The main cause behind this phenomenon is economic in nature. High youth unemployment, soaring rent and the growth of the real-estate market are reasons that prevent young people from leaving their parents' house. The persistence of older cultural or social models might also contribute to this reality, all the more so considering the aforementioned gender differences.

"Economic reasons are real, but there's also a cultural or social motivation, in the sense that in the traditional cultural paradigm the man is the main income provider. Men dominate the labor market. This social motivation impacts sociological studies. I have measured the social performance of the 27 EU countries in terms of life expectancy at birth, an indicator used in expert studies that measure the development of societies. In a nutshell, societies with underdeveloped social and health services tend to force young adults to continue to live with their parents, men in particular. Hence the huge gaps between men and women in southern Europe compared to northern Europe".

Still, this doesn't fully explain the phenomenon, considering southern Europe has undergone many transformations, Romania being a case in point.

"Poor countries in southern Europe have in the last 20 years experienced a process of accelerated growth in terms of the prospects of young adults. In brief, young people in Romania, regardless of their financial situation or the country's economic development, want to live in the West. Under these circumstances, some of them leave to Western countries, but others stay behind. They curb their personal spending and prepare to make a family. For instance, Romanian society has started investing more in more in child education. "We don't want a lot of children, but to offer them a better live, in our family, in our household and in society, so that they have access to better education and higher living standards", Romanians tend to think. Therefore, this type of procrastination that might seem peculiar at first glance is completely sound. It results from the sudden increase in the aspirations of relatively poor young people in southern Europe who postpone making a family and building their own household until the conditions are ideal".

Unfortunately, none of the current studies indicates the fact that the level of parent-child coresidence will go down any time soon, at least as long as the current economic context persists. (VP)