Young people become independent more and more later
Being able to fend for themselves is the dream of many young people, who see in the economic independence of their parents and, therefore, in having their own home the way to be autonomous and mature in a definitive way. However, this dream is increasingly fulfilled later: Young Spaniards leave their parents' house at 28.9 years on average.
This can be seen in the report of the Community Statistical Office, Eurostat, which shows that the young people from Spain they are the Europeans that take the longest to become independent: the average of the European Community is 26.1 years.
The Spaniards are, thus, very far from their neighbors in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, where the average age for independence from their family is, respectively, at 19.6 years; 21 and 21.9 years old. These countries are followed by the Netherlands (23.5), France (23.6) and Germany (23.9).
The data, which correspond to the year 2013, also show in which countries young people later become independent from their parents' house: in Croatia the average age stands at 31.9 years, ahead of Slovakia (30.7), Malta (30.1), Italy (29.9), Greece (29.3), Bulgaria (29.1) and Portugal (29).
Women leave the family home before
If these data can be curious as well as revealing, more so are those that refer to gender issues: the study highlights that in all the Member States women tend to leave the family home before men.
For example, the Eurostat report ensures that the average age of women to become economically independent is 27.9 years, while men average 29.8 years on average.
Children within the framework of the European Union
On the other hand, Eurostat has also facilitated the number of children under 15 years of age in the European Union: 2014 stood at 15.6 percent over the whole population. A percentage three points lower than that of 1994, which means that in 20 years there are 10 million fewer children.
By countries, Ireland is the State with the highest proportion of children (22% of the population), followed by France (18.6%) and the United Kingdom (17.6%). In the Spanish case, the country is somewhat below the European average, with 15.2 percent of children.
The Member States with the lowest rate of children are Germany (13.1% of their citizens are under 15 years of age), Bulgaria (13.7%) and Italy (13.9%).
Finally, Eurostat has prepared population projections that ensure that Spain will be (together with Slovakia, Portugal and Ireland) one of the countries where the rate of children will decrease the most by 2050, since it will go from 15.2% to 13, two%.
Angela R. Bonachera