I knew the figure was growing but this is surely a major change across Irish society of recent decades. It's a staggering figure!
According to the 2022 Census, 522,486 adults or 68% of people aged between 18 and 34 still live at home with their parents. And that figure pretty much reflects our own family situation. 2 out of every 3 - shocking.
When we met back in the 1980s, we had both moved out of home and could readily find a place to rent whilst on modest wages. We also managed to save and buy a property in time. The expectation in time would be that our own children would seek their independence, we'd have an empty house - birds have flown syndrome. That we might need to downsize. But that's not how it's worked out. If anything, we need to upsize as adult children need more personal space than when young. The world has turned on it's head.
There's are all sorts of effects on young adults living at home that are well covered in the article above. You could also say that it's reverting to an older way of living where people didn't travel as much and lived in local communities - but even then when they coupled up, they'd have got a place somewhere local.
The government regularly spins numbers of new houses built and mortgages given to first time buyers but is there ever any breakdown as to nationality benefiting from this. I presume our many new non nationals on valid work visas working in tech and medicine etc are all included in these purchases & mortgages.
There's also a significant urban/ rural effect at play here. It's one thing to live at home with parents in or near say Dublin, Cork, Galway etc Ready access to a varied social life and work. Very different matter for those living at home with parents in rural parts, who are thus arguably a lot more disadvantaged in terms of work and social life.
Those 500,000 people aged between 18 and 34 are also eligible to vote. I know none of ours would dream of voting for any of the government parties, they talk of PBP and Sinn Féin etc. These 500,000 people also have parents and extended families who are looking on with concern and many of whom also vote.
This housing business and the squeeze on young adults has been an issue before but I see it really exploding now as an issue. There is no easy fix for the government and they insist on pouring petrol on the fire by actively allowing the population to expand.
