Home > Statistics > Families > 2012 > Annual Review > 6. Nearly one-third of girls live at home at the age of 20 and over one-half of boys

6. Nearly one-third of girls live at home at the age of 20 and over one-half of boys

It is difficult to get a clear picture of when children leave home, as students were previously not officially considered as permanent residents of their place of study. They were recorded in the population register as living with their parents. In June 1994, a new act entered into force entitling everyone to choose their official municipality of residence. Some students take advantage of this right. Children’s leaving home is described below by the number of those with the status of a child in the family. A child of a family can, however, live at home and bring his or her spouse to live with him/her or have a child, whereby the young person forming a family no longer has the status of a child of the parents’ family in the statistics but an adult in a family of his/her own. Such living arrangements are very rare in Finland.

Between 1985 and 1993, even before the entry into force of the new Act on the Municipality of Domicile, there was a steep fall in the percentage of young people with the status of a child. Their share continued to decrease further also after the legislation entered into force, apart for in 2010 when the decline halted. In 2012, the relative share of young people with the status of a child decreased in the age group, even though their number increased by 150 from the year before.

Table 10. Young people aged 20 to 24 with the status of a child in 1985–2012

Year	Aged 20 to 24			Living with parents			Those living with parents as proportion of all, %
	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls
1985	377 267	192 738	184 529	203 186	126 280	76 906	53,9	65,5	41,7
1990	343 608	175 039	168 569	165 754	103 971	61 783	48,2	59,4	36,7
1995	305 051	156 008	149 043	126 448	79 642	46 806	41,5	51,0	31,4
2000	327 230	167 084	160 146	109 510	70 895	38 615	33,5	42,4	24,1
2005	333 936	170 710	163 226	96 473	63 875	32 598	28,9	37,4	20,0
2006	332 004	169 860	162 144	91 724	61 060	30 664	27,6	35,9	18,9
2007	327 266	167 344	159 922	88 109	58 520	29 589	26,9	35,0	18,5
2008	325 440	166 488	158 952	86 007	56 819	29 188	26,4	34,1	18,4
2009	324 472	165 988	158 484	85 080	55 871	29 209	26,2	33,7	18,4
2010	327 780	167 817	159 963	85 967	56 185	29 782	26,2	33,5	18,6
2011	332 881	170 256	162 625	85 742	55 810	29 932	25,8	32,8	18,4
2012	339 758	173 775	165 983	85 892	56 027	29 865	25,3	32,2	18,0

Girls leave their childhood home earlier than boys. Conscription may be one of the reasons why boys continue to live at home, but the difference is too large to be explained by that alone.

Today, as many as 68 per cent of girls and 44 per cent of boys have moved away from home by the time they are 20. The percentage is unchanged for girls from the year before, for boys it fell by one percentage point.

Figure 13. Young men aged 18 to 30 by family status in 2012

Figure 14. Young women aged 18 to 30 by family status in 2012

Finland has a total of 56,000 persons who have turned 30 and hold the status of a child in their family. Of them, 43,000 or 77 per cent are men. However, the number of such persons with the status of a child and aged at least 30 has decreased by seven hundred from the previous year.

Source: Population and Cause of Death Statistics, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Marjut Pietiläinen 09 1734 2798, Timo Nikander 09 1734 3250, vaesto.tilasto@stat.fi

Director in charge: Riitta Harala

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Updated 13.1.2014