The majority of Irish young adults (62%) that live with their parents say that they do so for financial reasons, a study by the country’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) has found.
According to the CSO, just over a fifth of those that live at home (22%) say that their decision has ‘a little bit to do with finances’, with 16% saying that financial reasons had nothing to do with their decision.
The findings form part of a data series that looked into what the statistics indicate about young peoples’ experience of living at home with their parents.
Living with their parents
According to the most recent census data for 2022, some 440,000 young adults were still living with their parents, an increase on the previous census, in 2016.
This accounts for 41% of people aged between 18 and 34, compared to 37% in 2016, and 32% in 2011.
Some 20% of people aged 30 at the time of Census 2022 were living with their parents, compared to 13% in 2011. The proportions varied by region, with Galway City having the lowest and South Dublin having the highest.
Both perspectives
The CSO also examined the perspective from both the parents themselves and their adult children – it found that almost six in ten (57%) of those who live with a parent said they enjoyed it, while of the parents surveyed who had an adult child living with them, 87% said they enjoyed living with an adult child.
Elsewhere, 88% of those living with a parent expressed a preference to move out, while half of the parents (50%) indicated a preference for their adult child to move out.
‘More than half of respondents (52%) who were living with a parent felt their parent(s) would not treat them as an adult unless they moved out,’ the CSO said.
‘The feeling of a lack of independence came through very strongly with seven in ten (70%) saying they did not have enough independence to have friends around or in their choice of meals.’
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