16.3% of young Spaniards aged between 16 and 29 lived outside the family home in the first half of last year, a percentage that represents a slight improvement compared to 2022, but which leaves the rate of youth emancipation far from the European average (31.9% in 2022) and the levels that existed in Spain before the economic crisis of 2008, when more than 25% were emancipated.
Young Spaniards are going through a bittersweet situation: unemployment has dropped to 2008 levels, the average salary of the group has increased by 5%, temporary employment has decreased by more than ten points in a year… but they continue without to be able to become independent and leave the family home. The main reason: the price of rents has risen much more than wages and, if that wasn’t enough, the cost of supplies has skyrocketed by 70%.
This is the reality described by the latest report of the Observatory of Emancipation of the Spanish Youth Council (CJE), corresponding to the first semester of 2023, which states that even if allotment of the salary is allocated to it, a young person cannot live alone . Taking as a reference the average salary of the group (1,005.22 net euros per month) and the average rent of a home (944 euros per month), plus the costs of electricity, gas and other supplies (138.12 euros) , he would lack about 77?euros.
This causes emancipation to almost always go to sharing a flat, although this option also does not prevent them from seeing their solvency compromised, because renting a room in a shared flat eats up almost 40% of a young person’s salary.
At these prices, some mortgage payments could even be cheaper than a month’s rent, but to pay for an apartment they would have to save their entire salary, without spending a penny, for four years and a half
“Rents keep going up and our purchasing power keeps going down, and this further exacerbates the housing crisis and directly affects our mental health because housing insecurity translates into anxiety, stress and constant worries about the future”, denounced the president of the CJE, Andrea González Henry, when she presented the report. And he asked that housing be tackled as a structural problem, that the public park be increased, that the Housing Law be applied and that the minimum wage be increased, reports Efe.
However, the possibilities of leaving the family home also have to do with the place of residence. In ten autonomous communities the emancipation rate was reduced in the first semester of 2023. In general, the autonomous communities with the highest youth unemployment are the ones with the fewest emancipated people. And they also affect the salaries that are paid, because only in six communities did the average young wage exceed the minimum wage.
