Over 2.2 million young Romanians under the age of 34 continue to stay with their parents

In Romania, the number of girls and young women (18-34 years old) living with their parents has increased and the number of boys has decreased. Almost one in two young women lives with their parents, while in men the share has fallen from 7 out of 10 to about 6 out of 10.

The differences in Europe are very large in this respect. For instance, young people in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) are at the top of the list of countries with the lowest share of young people living with extended families.

The reasons are not just economic: some of them live with a single parent who needs care, and hiring a person to care for the sick parent would be far too expensive, Hotnews reports.

Other explanations may be related to the fact that the youth unemployment rate is very high, and if you are not employed and do not have an income that would allow you a rent or a home loan, you will still live with your parents.

Another explanation is that the age at first marriage is constantly rising. He is now about 34 years old for men and over 30 years old for women. For comparison, in 1990 women married, on average, at the age of 21.3 years, and men at 24.8 years.

Today’s young people also prefer to extend their studies in order to obtain post-graduate studies that will bring them a better salary. At the same time, the share of young people going to college has increased compared to 30 years ago, which postpones the decision to move on your own.

Another major factor that encourages young people to stay home is difficult access to their own home: first, the savings and the payment of the initial advance to obtain a bank loan and, secondly, the subsequent payment of the installments. Moreover, the state has not built social housing in recent years to rent to young people at lower prices to encourage them to start a life on their own, and rising prices in the real estate market are forcing young people to stay with their parents for a bit longer.

If 20 years ago you needed 66 salaries to get a studio, nowadays you need over 70 salaries. In fact, young people’s access to housing is declining from one generation to the next. If we take the year 2000 as an example, the average salary was 2,139,138 lei, and one euro was worth 20,300 lei. In other words, expressed in euros, the average salary was 105 euros.