“We become emancipated when we stop being young,” lamented Andrea González Henry, president of the Youth Council of Spain, when presenting the latest barometer of this institution and confirming that in 2022 the age of emancipation was delayed again, to 30 .3 years, the highest in the last two decades. Only 15.9% of those under 30 years of age in Spain have managed to emancipate themselves, half that of the European Union (31.9%).
Having a job is not enough to access housing, whether purchased or rented. According to the council, the average young person’s salary rose by 4.6% last year to 13,079 euros net per year (or 1,089 euros net per month), but the price of rent rose even more, by 7.55%, and was 912 euros in the big capitals. “Totally unaffordable,” he lamented.
Higher education did not guarantee emancipation either: only 22.9% of young people with university or higher education training had been able to emancipate themselves, and this rate was similar for young people who had not continued studying.
Sociologist Joffre López, author of the study, assured that for a young person “it is impossible to emancipate oneself without becoming over-indebted”, which has led to sharing a flat being the usual solution: the average rent for a room was 282.19 at the end of 2022. euros, 25.9% of young people’s salaries.
The purchase is also unattainable: the average entry fee was 49,852.20 euros, the equivalent of 3.8 full years of salary for those under 30 years of age.
