Malta's young population reluctant to leave mum

Malta’s young and not so young seem to be quite reluctant to leave their maternal household early according to new statistics issued by Eurostat today.

While in the rest of the EU in 2008 the number of males who at 34 years were still living with their parents was just one in three (32 per cent), in Malta it was almost one in two (48.5 per cent).

Females seemed to be more independent, even as they usually married younger. However, while in the EU only 19.6 per cent of females aged 25-34 were still living with their parents in 2008, in Malta this figure stood at 35.3 per cent, almost double the EU average.

The only countries which come close to Malta with regards to staying-at-home youngsters were Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece and Bulgaria.

According to Eurostat experts, reasons as to why Maltese youths preferred to live longer with their parents included the island’s small territory, where everywhere was reachable within 30 minutes and a close-knit family culture.

Eurostat said that in 2008, the highest shares of young adults aged 18 to

24 living with their parents were recorded for both women and men in Slovenia and Malta (both 93 per cent for women and 97 per cent for men) and Slovakia (90 and 96 per cent), and the lowest shares in Denmark (27 and 40 per cent), Finland (32 and 53 per cent) and Sweden (37 and 47 per cent).

Among women aged 25 to 34, Slovakia (42 per cent) had the largest proportion living with their parents, followed by Slovenia (38 per cent) and Greece (36 per cent), while Denmark (one per cent) and Finland and Sweden (both two per cent) had the smallest.

For men in the same age group, the highest shares were registered in Bulgaria (61 per cent), Slovenia (60 per cent), Greece and Slovakia (both 56 per cent), and the lowest in Denmark (three per cent), Sweden (four per cent) and Finland (eight per cent).

In all EU member states, there were higher shares of women in the age group 18 to 34 living in a consensual union than men, because women on average married or moved out with a partner earlier in life than men.

The highest proportions of both women and men aged 18 to 34 who lived in a consensual union in 2008 were observed in Finland (63 per cent for women and 51 per cent for men), Sweden (61 per cent and 48 per cent), Romania (57 per cent and 42 per cent) and France (55 per cent and 45 per cent).

The lowest for women was in Ireland (34 per cent), Slovenia, Malta and Slovakia (all 37 per cent) and for men in Greece (21 per cent), Slovenia

(22 per cent) and Italy (25 per cent).