Nearly a quarter of 25-year-olds reside with their parents.
In Germany, the majority of young adults move out of their parents' home by the time they turn 24 years old, which is a lot earlier than the average age for the whole country. Interestingly, around a quarter of 25-year-olds still resided with their parents last year, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office based on Microcensus data. The numbers have remained relatively similar since 2020, the office mentioned.
Sons are more hesitant to leave, with 33% of them still living at home, while only 21% of daughters do. As people get older, this gender difference persists. For example, at age 30, 13% of men still lived with their parents, compared to 6% of women. The trend continues to decrease significantly for both genders from ages 30 to 40: 5% of men and about 2% of women stayed with their parents during this period.
Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, revealed that the average age for leaving the parental home in Germany last year was 23.9 years, which is lower than the EU's average of 26.3 years. They added that children tend to leave home earlier in the Nordic countries, with the youngest age being 21.4 years in Finland. Denmark and Sweden also had an early average age of 21.8 years.
On the other hand, the EU pointed out that the age of leaving home was comparatively high in the southern and eastern European countries. Croatia had the highest average age at 31.8 years, followed by the Slovak Republic, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Bulgaria, which all had an average age of 30 years or above.
Eurostat's research also showed that, apart from Malta, women leave home earlier than men in every EU country. In Germany, the average age for women leaving their parents' home is 23.1 years, and 24.7 years for men. In the EU as a whole, the average age for women is 25.4 years and 27.2 years for men.
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In contrast to the EU's average, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany reported that approximately a quarter of 25-year-olds still lived in an Apartment with their Parents last year. Despite advancements in housing trends, some young adults choose to continue residing in their family homes, delaying the transition to independent living.
