Italy’s Multi-Generation Homes
How does Italy compare to major EU countries on young adult children living with parents?
March 29, 2016
1. Among the larger EU countries, Italy has the highest share of 18 to 34-year-olds living with one or more parents.
2. That reality – the highest EU share of youth at home – was true a decade ago and remains true today, but the actual share did increase.
3. Back then, in 2005, nearly 61% lived with a parent. By 2014, that ratio has risen to more than 65%, according to Eurostat data.
4. However, with an increase of 4.5 percentage points between 2005 and 2014, Italy did not have the largest increase in that cohabitation ratio.
5. One prominent factor in the further increase of young people living at home with parents is that Italy’s annual GDP growth has been less than 2% or negative over the entire past decade.
6. In 2005, Italy’s share was well above the 49.1% median among EU countries that are also Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members. (In 2014, the median was 45.4%.)
7. Other EU countries with a level of above 60% are Slovakia, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Poland.
8. The lowest rates — below 25% — are found in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.
9. To compare Italy’s shift with another large EU economy, the UK share of youth living with parents was 4.6% higher in 2014 than in 2005. There it rose from 29.1% to just below 34%.
10. The British spike peaked in 2009, reaching almost four in ten U.K. 18 to 34-year-olds living with a parent, before subsiding somewhat.
Sources: The Globalist Research Center, OECD and Office for National Statistics (UK)
Takeaways
One factor in an increase of youth living at home is that Italy’s GDP growth has been less than 2%.
In 2009, a spike in UK youth living at home reached nearly 40% of 18-34-year-olds living with a parent.
Among large EU states, Italy has the highest share of 18-34-year-olds living with a parent.