Young Croatians leave home at 31.5, young Finns at 21.4: a ten-year gap that wages alone don't explain

University degree, first job, your own income - and still your childhood bedroom at your parents' place. For a large share of young people in southern and eastern Europe, that isn't a short phase but a life that carries on past their thirtieth birthday. The latest Eurostat data, published on 15 September 2026, show that young people in the European Union left their parents' home at an average age of 26.3 in 2025.

Behind the average lies a ten-year gap. Young people in Croatia are the last to become independent, at 31.5. Greece and Slovakia follow at 30.9 each, then Italy and Spain at 30.2 each. At the other end is Finland, where young people leave at 21.4, followed by Denmark at 21.8 and Estonia and Lithuania at 22.7 each.

Work helps, but it isn't enough. In 2025 the employment rate for 20-to-29-year-olds in the EU was 65.5 percent, and in most of the countries where young people move out earlier - Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden - employment is above the European average. But a regular salary isn't always enough for rent or for a mortgage down payment.

Homes are getting pricier faster than wages

According to Eurostat, house prices in the EU rose by 60.5 percent between 2010 and the second quarter of 2025, and rents by 28.8 percent, in nominal terms. In Hungary house prices rose by 277 percent, and in Estonia by 250 percent. A European Commission analysis from October 2025 concludes that over the past decade house prices grew faster than incomes.

Croatia is a particularly interesting case for us. It has been an EU member since 2013 and in the eurozone since 2023, it has access to European funds and the single market - and yet its young people wait the longest for a front door of their own. If membership didn't bring young Croatians a flat, what exactly are we expecting while we wait at the Union's door?

The data carried by Macedonian media contain no figure for Macedonia, and a guess is not a figure. Living with your parents doesn't always mean financial dependence - in some countries it's also a family tradition. But when the choice is between rent that swallows your salary and your childhood bedroom, tradition easily becomes a convenient explanation.