16.3% of young Spaniards between 16 and 29 years old lived outside the family home in the first half of last year, a percentage that represents a slight improvement compared to 2022 but leaves the youth emancipation rate far from the average European (31.9% in 2022) and the levels that existed in Spain before the economic crisis of 2008, when the emancipated rate exceeded 25%.
And young Spaniards are going through a bittersweet scenario: unemployment has dropped to 2008 levels, the median salary of the group has grown by 5%, temporary employment has been reduced by more than ten points in one year… but they are still powerless. become independent and leave the family home. The main reason: the price of rent has risen much more than salaries and, if that were not enough, the cost of supplies has skyrocketed by 70%.
That is the reality described in the latest report from the Emancipation Observatory of the Spanish Youth Council, corresponding to the first half of 2023, which confirms that even if all of their salary is allocated to it, a young person cannot live alone. Taking as a reference the average salary of the group (1,005.22 euros net per month) and the average rent for a home (944 euros per month), plus the costs of electricity, gas and other supplies (138.12 euros), it would be missing about 77 euros for it.
This leads to emancipation almost always involving sharing a flat, although this option does not prevent them from seeing their solvency compromised, because renting a room in a shared flat eats up practically 40% of young people’s salaries.
With these prices, the payment of some mortgages could be cheaper than facing a monthly rent, but to pay the down payment for an apartment they would have to save their entire salary, without spending a single euro, for four and a half years. For this reason, renting is the most common option for young people who achieve emancipation.
“Rents do not stop rising and our purchasing power does not stop falling and that further aggravates 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 presenting the report.
And he has demanded that housing be faced as a structural problem, that the public stock be increased – which in Spain represents 2.5% of total housing compared to the 9.3% average in Europe – that the Law on Housing and that the minimum wage be increased, reports Efe.
Along the same lines, the Secretary of State for Youth and Children, Rubén Pérez, has pointed out that “everything depends on what we do in terms of housing (…). We will call into question the growth of this country if we do not solve the capacity of young people to have their life project, to have their economic and vital independence”.
Women become independent to a greater extent (19.4%) than men (13.3%), and in fact the male youth emancipation rate even suffered a slight decline last year. However, the proportion of boys who leave alone is double that of girls.
Data from the Youth Council show that there is a great difference in the possibilities of leaving the family home depending on the place of residence of young people. In ten autonomous communities, the emancipation rate, far from improving, fell in the first half of 2023. In general, the autonomies where there is a higher percentage of youth unemployment are those with fewer emancipated young people. And it also affects the salary paid, because only in six autonomous communities did the median youth salary exceed the 2023 minimum wage.
The highest rate of youth emancipation occurs in Catalonia: 20.9%, the highest figure since 2020. It also happens to be the community with the highest activity and employment rate, the least youth unemployment and that has the fifth highest young median salary in Spain. But this advantage in working conditions does not make it possible for young people to live alone due to high housing prices. In order to pay the down payment for an apartment, young Catalans would have to dedicate their entire salary for four and a half years and then allocate three quarters of their monthly income to the mortgage. And if they choose to rent, with current prices it is not enough for them even if they give 100% of what they earn.
