Young Croatians Leave the Parental Home at 31.5, Young Finns at 21.3

A decade between the two ends of the Union

Eurostat estimates, for each country, the average age at which young people stop living in their parents' household. For the EU as a whole in 2025 that age was 26.3.

The national figures run from 21.3 in Finland to 31.5 in Croatia, a span of 10.2 years. A young Finn typically leaves in the early twenties; a young Croat typically leaves after turning thirty. No other headline indicator about young Europeans separates the Member States this widely.

Where leaving comes late

Croatia at 31.5 is followed by Greece and Slovakia at 30.9, then Spain and Italy at 30.2. Five Member States sit at or above 30. Portugal and Slovenia at 28.8, Bulgaria at 27.9, Malta at 27.5, Romania at 27.4 and Hungary at 27.3 come next.

Fifteen Member States are above the EU average, and the list has a shape: the Mediterranean, the Balkans and much of central Europe. It also includes Ireland at 26.9, Poland at 26.8 and Luxembourg at 26.6, which do not fit either label.

Where it comes early

Finland at 21.3, Denmark at 21.8, Estonia and Lithuania at 22.7, Sweden at 23.1, the Netherlands at 23.4 and France at 23.8 are the seven Member States below 24. Germany at 24.1 and Austria at 25.2 follow.

The Nordic countries, the Baltic states, the Netherlands and France form a group that is not obviously one: incomes, housing markets and student support differ widely between Helsinki, Vilnius and Paris. What they share is that a young adult living apart from parents in their early twenties is the ordinary arrangement.

Men and women

Women leave earlier than men everywhere but Malta. Across the EU the estimated age is 25.5 for women and 27.2 for men, a difference of 1.7 years computed here from the two published figures.

The gap is widest in Romania, where men leave at 29.4 and women at 25.3, a difference of 4.1 years, and in Bulgaria at 3.7 years. Croatia, Greece, Czechia and Latvia all record 2.8. It is narrowest in Denmark at 0.5 years and Luxembourg at 0.6. Malta is the one reversal: women there leave at 27.8 and men at 27.3.

The pattern is consistent with women partnering earlier than men, and with the age difference inside couples, but the indicator records the age of leaving and says nothing about where people go.

What an average age cannot say

A late average can reflect housing costs, long studies, unemployment, or a preference for living with family; an early one can reflect cheap student housing or a culture that expects independence. The indicator does not distinguish between them. It records an outcome, and the countries at either end of the ranking arrive there for reasons this measure cannot separate.