Nearly half of Spaniards under 31 live with their parents

According to the latest data available from Eurostat, the European statistics office, Spaniards leave home at 30.4 years old on average.

Forty-five percent of young people up to the age of 31 still live with their parents, and among those who do manage to get a place of their own, nearly four in ten still need external financial support to cover daily expenses. This is one of the main conclusions of the IV Cofidis Observatory of Sustainable Household Economy 2025.

The main reason behind this are the increasing rents and housing costs, along with low and relatively stagnant wages. The truth is that many simply can’t afford to move out.

Housing prices have been rising almost constantly since 2014, and have done so much faster than salary.

Spain’s National Statistics Institute, the INE reveals that for those aged 25 to 29, the average salary is €21,039, while those aged 30 to 34, the average income is €25,222. For those under 24, the average annual income falls to €15,364.

Housing prices have soared by a whopping 77.2 percent between the first quarter of 2015 and the same quarter this year, according to the INE, and the lack of supply has only made the situation worse. The inability to save enough for a downpayment on a property and get a mortgage forces them to look for a rental instead.

But the situation isn’t much better in the rental market with real estate website Idealista estimating that rents rose more than 14 percent last year alone.

READ ALSO: Young people in Spain will have to retire at 71 to get decent pension

The current rental price is €14.6 per metre squared which rises €20.3 /m2 in Madrid and €18.7/m2 in Catalonia, two of the most expensive places to live in the country.

The Cofidis report also shows how becoming independent does not guarantee economic stability. In fact, 19.6 percent of all young people living on their own fail to save any extra at the end of the month and mostly just live hand to mouth.

Among those who are lucky enough to save anything, 33 percent save less than 10 percent of their income, 38 percent save between 10 percent and 30 percent, and only 19.3 percent save more than 30 percent.

This lack of saving leads to many difficulties when unforeseen expenses come up. Three out of 10 emancipated young people would be unable to cover a €5,000 outlay on their own, and more than 42 percent would find it impossible to cover a €10,000 expense.

They have "a high level of economic vulnerability in the event of unforeseen events of a certain magnitude," the report states.

READ ALSO: Spain has highest number first-time mothers over 40 in the EU

One of the main conclusions of the findings according to Cofidis is that "Economic insecurity continues to influence the life choices of Spanish youth and limits their medium- and long-term planning possibilities”.

This is evident by the fact that Spaniards are waiting much longer to have children than in many European countries, possibly waiting until they can move out of home and find a place of their own. According to the INE, the average age for women to give birth to their first child in Spain is 32.6 years, one of the highest ages in Europe.

There has also been decline in the number of births in Spain in recent years, and the number of births to mothers aged 40 or older has grown by 19.1 percent in the last 10 years.