More young people live with their parents: how families can agree on house rules
In Latvia in 2025, 70.3% of people aged 18–24 lived with their parents, and similar trends appear in other countries. Experts advise parents to agree early with adult children on payments and duties.
Young people are in no rush to leave the family home after reaching adulthood, according to statistics from Latvia and abroad. In Latvia in 2025, 70.3% of people aged 18–24 and 41.7% of those aged 25–29 lived with their parents, without a partner or children. For families this raises the question of how to share costs and responsibilities, and foreign advisers have offered guidance on it.
Figures across countries
In the United Kingdom, almost 29% of people aged 20 to 34 live with their parents, and around age 25 the figure is close to half. In the United States it is about 40%, and in Australia 49% of those aged 20 to 29. According to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, the average age at which young people leave the parental home in the EU is 26.3. The earliest are in Finland (21.4) and Denmark (21.8); the latest in Croatia (31.5), and Greece and Slovakia (30.9). Within Latvia, the share of young people living with parents is highest in Liepāja and Saldus municipality and lowest in Saulkrasti and Ādaži municipalities.
Reasons and agreements
In English the situation of children staying with or returning to their parents is called “full nest syndrome”. Reasons include expensive rent, high prices, lack of work, long studies, divorce or health problems. In some cultures, several generations living under one roof is a tradition.
British business journalist and TV presenter Jasmine Birtles advises parents to be firm: agree on a symbolic rent, a share of the bills or practical chores. She stresses that open talk about family finances helps young adults understand what independent living will cost. A pair of teachers told The Guardian they receive 300 pounds (about 350 euros) a month from their 25-year-old son.
Financial consultant Jane Gove urges parents not to put their own financial security and pension contributions at risk, and to stop paying for children's phone bills or insurance. US behaviour expert James Lehman recommends firmness with adult children who neither study nor work and, in extreme cases, “throwing them out” of the house for 24 hours.
