Young Belgians leave their family home much later than citizens of neighbouring countries, a recent study has found.
According to Eurostat, the EU's official statistics office, the typical youngster in Belgium leaves home at 26.3 years of age: roughly three years later than in the Netherlands (23), France (23.4), or Germany (23.8).
Belgians also fly the family nest far later than they did a decade ago: in 2012, the average Belgian left home at 24.9 years of age. However, Belgians still leave home slightly earlier than the average European (26.4).
Across the EU, Nordic Europeans leave home the earliest, namely Finns (21.3), Swedes (21.4), and Danes (21.7). By contrast, Croats leave home the latest (33.4).
Men left home later than women in all EU countries; in Belgium, men on average left at 27.0 and women at 25.6 years of age respectively.
Speaking after last year's results were issued, Laura Merla, a sociologist at UCLeuven, highlighted the "unfavorable economic context that has seen a deterioration in the job market with more precarious, more flexible, shorter contracts, which make it hard to pay rent".
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Merla's remarks were corroborated by Dimitri Mortelmans, a sociologist at the University of Antwerp.
"Youngsters mostly have financial reasons to postpone seeking their own place," he told VRT. "When they leave, they don't want to fail and come back begging. The corona crisis increased uncertainty. As a result, youngsters postponed their plans."
Belgians' failure to flee the parental abode has also coincided with rising youth unemployment across Belgium and, indeed, much of the rest of Europe. Youth unemployment in Brussels is now 12.8% higher compared to this time last year.
