Almost one in two young people (47.3%) between 26 and 34 years old who still live with their parents do so because they cannot afford the cost of rent (34.6%) or because they do not have the economic capacity to buy a home (12.7%), according to the "Survey on Living Conditions" (ECV) on difficulties of access to housing in 2025, prepared by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
Furthermore, 13% of young people aged 26 to 34 stated that they are saving with the aim of buying or renting a house, while 23.6% admitted that they have not even considered taking the step of becoming independent. Only 1.9% assured that, despite being able to afford to pay rent or own a home, they prefer to continue living with their parents.
In 2025, 67.1% of people aged 18 to 34 lived with at least one of their parents. This proportion soared to 93.4% among young people aged 18 to 25 and stood at 44.3% in the 26 to 34 age group. In this latter group, living with parents reached 50.8% of men, compared to 37.5% of women.
The lower the income or education, the more young people are not emancipated
If analyzed by the young person's income level, the percentage of people aged 26 to 34 who were still living with their parents was 29.4% among those with annual net income above 24,000 euros, compared to 55.5% of those with incomes below 6,000 euros per year.
Among young people aged 26 to 34 who lived with their parents, 48.7% of those with lower incomes cited as the main reason that they could not afford to rent or buy a home, while this reason decreased to 30% in the case of people with higher incomes.
Regarding saving to access housing, the percentage of those who stated they were setting aside money to buy or rent stood at 25.6% within the highest income group and at only 2.9% among those with fewer resources.
By educational level achieved, the proportion of young people aged 26 to 34 who lived with their parents was slightly higher among those who did not have university studies (45.2%) than among those who did (43.6%).
However, clearer differences were observed in the distribution of the main reasons for cohabitation: among young people with university studies, it was more common to point to savings as the priority reason, while among those without university studies, economic difficulties in accessing housing carried more weight.
The excessive price, the great obstacle to changing houses
7.6% of people aged 16 or over actively searched for housing in 2025 during the previous 12 months without finally changing residence. Among this group, 67.2% pointed to the excessive price of housing as the main reason why they did not move, with cost being the predominant reason across all age groups.
On the other hand, 6.6% indicated that they did not meet the conditions required to rent or buy and another 6.6% pointed out that the available housing did not have the characteristics they were looking for.
By age group, the search for housing was more unsuccessful among the younger population. The percentage reached 14.9% in people aged 30 to 44 years and 9.6% among those aged 16 to 29 years, compared to 6.0% in the 45 to 64 years age group and 1.5% among those aged 65 or over. In all cases, the main stated reason for not finding housing was the excessively high price.
Among young people, it was more frequent to claim not to meet the required conditions to rent or buy a home. This argument was mentioned by 9.3% of people aged 16 to 29, compared to 1.8% of those aged 65 or over.
Balearics lead the unsuccessful housing search
By autonomous communities, the highest percentages of people who tried to find housing without success were in the Balearic Islands (10.6%), Community of Madrid (10.2%), and the Canary Islands (8.9%).
On the opposite end, Extremadura (3.9%), Castilla-La Mancha (5.3%), and Aragón (5.4%) registered the lowest percentages. In all autonomies, the excessive price was the main reason indicated.
If the country of birth is observed, the percentage of people who searched for housing without success during the last year stood at 13.7% among those born outside the European Union, at 9.5% among those from another European Union (EU) country, and at 6.3% among those born in Spain.