How long do young Czechs live with their parents? Not nearly as long as Slovaks

Young adults in the Czech Republic were close to the EU average for the percentage living with their parents and also close to the average age for leaving.

In 2019, the share of young adults in the Czech Republic between the ages of 25 to 34 who were living with their parents was 29.0%, while the EU average was 30.5 years. The EU average is based on 2018 figures, as 2019 data are incomplete. The figures are from Eurostat, the statistical unit of the European Union, and include 27 countries but not the UK, which is no longer an EU member.

Northern Europe had the lowest number of people living at home, while Southeastern Europe had the highest number. Denmark was lowest, with 4.0%, followed by Finland (4.8%) and Sweden (5.7%). The highest percentages were in Slovakia, with 56.4% in 2018, Greece (57.8%) and Croatia (62.0%).

“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, labor market conditions, the affordability of housing but also cultural particularities,” Eurostat said.

There is a gender gap, as well. For the Czech Republic, some 37.9% of men aged 25 to 34 lived at home compared to 19.8% of women in 2019. The EU average, using 2018 figures, was 37.3% for men and 23.7% for women.

The average age for leaving home also varied greatly across the EU. On average, young people in the EU-27 left the parental household at the age of 26.2 years in 2019. For the Czech Republic, the average age was 25.8. This figure has been slowly dropping since 2011, when for the Czech Republic it was 27.2 compared to an EU-27 average of 26.5.

Young people left home earliest in 2019 in the three northern countries: 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 with 23.7 years). In the southern EU Member, young people move out at around 30

“At the other side of the scale, young adults in Croatia and Slovakia remained the longest in the parental household. They left home on average at the age of 31.8 and 30.9 years respectively. Young adults in Italy (30.1 years), Bulgaria (30.0 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 states.

In almost all EU Member States, young women tended to leave the parental household earlier than men. The only exception was Luxembourg (20.3 years for women, compared with 20.0 years for men). For the Czech Republic, the average age for men was 26.9, and for women it was 24.7.

The largest differences between the genders were registered in Romania, with 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).