SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, 12 Aug. (EUROPA PRESS)
By the second half of 2023, the Canary Islands achieved the second-highest rate of young people leaving their family homes in the country, with 20% of young residents on the islands living independently. This marked a 4.2% increase from the second half of 2022 and the best figure since the end of 2014, according to the latest report from the Emancipation Observatory of the Youth Council of Spain (CJE) published this Monday, coinciding with World Youth Day.
The rise in young people moving out was partly due to a higher proportion of young foreigners, particularly from the European Union, who tend to emancipate upon arrival in Spain more often than native Canary Islanders.
The report also highlighted that youth unemployment in the Canary Islands during the second half of 2023 was the second-highest in Spain, increasing by 5.2 points compared to the previous year. Moreover, over a third of young Canarians with higher education were overqualified for their jobs, and 40.9% of the youth population in the Islands were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
High property prices and low wages created a scenario where even young people earning median incomes found it unfeasible to live independently solely on their earnings.
NATIONAL DATA
The emancipation rate in Spain reached 17% in the second half of 2023, an increase of seven-tenths from the previous half-year and one point from the previous year. However, seven out of ten working young people (70.4%) still resided with their parents.
The report noted this as the best emancipation rate since the first half of 2020, amidst the global crisis triggered by COVID-19. Moreover, there have been five consecutive semesters of growth in the emancipation rate. Yet, this figure still lags behind the pre-pandemic levels of 18.7% and the levels pre-2008 crisis (26.1%).
The document highlighted that 236,333 more young people were living independently in Spain by the end of last year than the previous year. This improvement in the emancipation rate coincided with a 1.08 point reduction in the unemployment rate and a 4% rise in the average youth salary.
Despite these improvements, the CJE cautioned about potential factors that could lead to a decline in the emancipation rate in the near future. One such factor is the increasing average age of emancipation, which stood at 30.4 years in 2023, compared to the European average of 26.3 years. Moreover, Spain’s emancipation rate was 14.9 points lower than the European rate.
Another concerning factor was that in 2023, rental prices hit record highs: the median cost for a standard apartment was 968 euros per month, an increase of 88 euros from the previous year (10% rise), meaning young people would have to allocate 92.1% of their income towards rent. Utility costs also surged by 17.3% within a year. These steep expenses resulted in fewer young individuals moving out independently despite a higher percentage leaving home.
Even renting a room instead of an entire apartment did not alleviate the financial burden considerably, as young people in Spain had to spend 30% of their income on rent (the maximum recommended by international organisations). The average rent for a room stood at 380 euros per month in Spain, equivalent to 36.2% of a young person’s net monthly income, with figures reaching 40% in certain provincial capitals such as Malaga, Seville, Barcelona, Valencia, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, or Palma de Mallorca.
