With affordable housing getting harder-and-harder to find and the cost of living hitting hard young people, Gen Z and millennials are struggling to leave their parents' homes, or are moving into overcrowded households.
Over a quarter of young people were living in overcrowded houses in 2023, according to new figures published by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, on Thursday (19 September).
When it comes to the general EU population, the proportion of people living in overcrowded households stands at 17 percent — a gap that reflects the worsening housing crisis faced by younger generations.
As affordable living has become increasingly a problem across Europe, the European Commission has designated the first-ever EU commissioner with direct responsibility for housing.
“We urgently need to address the housing crisis facing millions of families and young people,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in her political guidelines before being reelected by MEPs in July.
According to Sina Riz à Porta, a campaigner from the European Youth Forum, the newly-appointed Danish EU commissioner for housing Dan Jørgensen “must consider setting a minimum quota of at least 30 percent for social and affordable housing in every member state by 2030.”
“While also making sure that rental markets are fair and in line with the cost-of-living,” she told EUobserver.
Riz also said that efforts should focus on boosting the supply of and access to affordable housing, and highlighted that implementing a minimum income would establish a financial safety net across the EU, “supporting young people with greater financial autonomy in their daily lives."
New data also shows that the situation for young people varies. In Malta, only around four-percent of young people lived in overcrowded households last year, while the rate rises to about 60 percent in Romania.
Likewise, more than half of young people also lived in overcrowded households in Bulgaria and Latvia and more than a third of the EU youth population in Greece, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
Meanwhile, figures also show that young people from southern Europe generally face even greater difficulties when it comes to leaving the parental household.
In most of northern and western Europe, young adults often move out of their parents' house in their early to mid-20s. Denmark, Finland, and Sweden have the lowest scores. In contrast, the average ages in southern and eastern countries like Greece, Italy, and Croatia are in the late 20s or early 30s.
What is the reason for this? A more precarious labour market with even higher unemployment rates than in northern Europe and wages that do not guarantee a decent standard of living, Riz à Porta told EUobserver, arguing that “a weaker social safety net further deny young people the financial independence to leave the parental home”.
In 2021, the EU had 73 million young people aged 15 to 29, making up 16.3 percent of the total population.