Why young people in Greece live with their parents until age 31

This is reflected in new Eurostat data published on September 15, 2026, in an analysis titled "When do young people leave the parental home?". According to the data, young people in Greece leave the family home at an average age of 30.9 years, compared to 26.3 years in the European Union. The gap relative to the European average thus stands at 4.6 years.

Greece records the second-highest age in the EU, tied with Slovakia. Only in Croatia do young people leave later—at 31.5 years of age—followed by Spain and Italy, where the average age is 30.2 years.

At the other end of the spectrum in Europe, the picture is entirely different. In Finland, young people leave their parents' home at an average age of 21.4 years, and in Denmark at 21.8 years, while in Estonia and Lithuania, the corresponding age is 22.7 years. The gap between Greece and Finland thus reaches 9.5 years.

The comparison becomes even more striking when looking at the trajectory of the European average. In 2025, young people in the EU left the parental home at an average age of 26.3 years, compared to 26.2 years in 2024. According to Eurostat, the European average has remained close to 26 years since 2002.

In the same analysis, Eurostat also factors in the labor market. In 2025, the employment rate for young people aged 20 to 29 in the European Union was 65.5%. A comparison between countries shows that, in most cases where young people leave the parental home earlier than the European average, employment rates for this age group are above the EU average.

The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden are prime examples. These are countries where young people tend to leave the family home earlier, while simultaneously recording higher employment rates among those aged 20–29.

At the opposite end of the spectrum lies Greece, alongside Croatia, Spain, and Italy. In these countries, young people leave the family home later, and employment rates for the 20–29 age group are below the European average. Eurostat highlights this correlation without attributing the tendency to remain in the parental home solely to labor market conditions.

However, there is a significant methodological detail behind the "30.9 years" figure. It does not mean that all young people in Greece leave the parental home at exactly that age. The Eurostat indicator—based on the EU Labour Force Survey and covering the 15–34 age group—reflects the estimated age at which 50% of the population no longer lives in the same household as one or both parents.

This detail clarifies the situation in Greece even further. At 30.9 years—just shy of 31—only half of young people have left the family home. The corresponding point for the European Union average is 26.3 years, while in Finland, it is as early as 21.4 years. This difference, combined with data on youth employment, places Greece in a group of Southern and Eastern European countries where the transition from the family home to independent living occurs significantly later than the European average.

The approach regarding sources and methodology is clear: we do not introduce figures for rents, wages, or employment rates for Greece that are not provided in the specific publication, and we retain all the key numerical findings it presents for the Greek case.