Youth Emancipation in Spain Falls to Its Lowest Level Since 2006
The most recent data from the Emancipation Observatory reveal a critical situation: only 14.8% of young people in Spain have managed to become independent. This figure marks the worst record in nearly two decades, since 2006, and underscores a structural difficulty for new generations to build a life project outside the family home. 🏠⬇️
Housing Costs Devour Youth Salaries
The main barrier is the cost of accessing housing. To rent, a young person must allocate on average 93.8% of their net salary, leaving almost no economic margin. Buying a house requires increasing current income by more than 64%. This gap is insurmountable for most, especially in regions like the Balearic Islands, Madrid, or Catalonia, although even the most affordable provinces do not offer a sustainable relationship between salary and housing expenditure.
Key data on economic effort:- Renting consumes 93.8% of a young person's net salary.
- Buying requires increasing the salary by 64.5%.
- In the autonomous communities with the highest prices, the situation is even more extreme.
To be able to pay rent, you first need to inherit an apartment that you can sell.
A Labor Market That Does Not Allow Planning
Labor precarity consolidates the problem. More than half of the contracts for those under 30 are temporary, generating chronic economic instability that prevents applying for a mortgage or planning in the medium term. Salaries have not grown at the rate of inflation and housing prices, creating a vicious circle of dependency.
Consequences of labor instability:- Impossibility of accessing bank financing for a mortgage.
- Need to prolong the stay at parents' house or share an apartment.
- Delay in other life projects, such as starting a family.
A Generational Paradox
The current scenario poses an absurd paradox: economic independence seems to depend more on family inheritance than on one's own work effort. As long as salaries and housing prices continue on divergent paths, the dream of emancipation is indefinitely postponed for the vast majority of Spanish youth, awaiting a structural change in the labor and housing markets. 🔄