6. More than one half of boys live at home at the age of 20
It is difficult to get a clear picture of when children leave home, as students were previously not officially considered as permanent residents of their place of study. They were recorded in the population register as living with their parents. In June 1994, a new act entered into force entitling everyone to choose their official municipality of residence. Some students take advantage of this right. Children’s leaving home is described below by the number of those with the status of a child in the family. A child of a family can, however, live at home and bring his or her spouse to live with him/her or have a child, whereby the young person forming a family no longer has the status of a child of the parents’ family in the statistics but an adult in a family of his/her own. Such living arrangements are very rare in Finland.
Between 1985 and 1993, even before the entry into force of the new Act on the Municipality of Domicile, there was a steep fall in the percentage of young people with the status of a child. Even after the Act had taken effect their proportion continued to fall right up to the year 2009. In 2011, both the number and proportion of those holding the status of a child diminished again slightly.
Table 10. Young people aged 20 to 24 with the status of a child in 1985–2011
Year | Aged 20 to 24 | Living with parents | Those living with parents as proportion of all, % | ||||||
Total | Boys | Girls | Total | Boys | Girls | Total | Boys | Girls | |
1985 | 377 267 | 192 738 | 184 529 | 203 186 | 126 280 | 76 906 | 53,9 | 65,5 | 41,7 |
1990 | 343 608 | 175 039 | 168 569 | 165 754 | 103 971 | 61 783 | 48,2 | 59,4 | 36,7 |
1995 | 305 051 | 156 008 | 149 043 | 126 448 | 79 642 | 46 806 | 41,5 | 51,0 | 31,4 |
2000 | 327 230 | 167 084 | 160 146 | 109 510 | 70 895 | 38 615 | 33,5 | 42,4 | 24,1 |
2005 | 333 936 | 170 710 | 163 226 | 96 473 | 63 875 | 32 598 | 28,9 | 37,4 | 20,0 |
2006 | 332 004 | 169 860 | 162 144 | 91 724 | 61 060 | 30 664 | 27,6 | 35,9 | 18,9 |
2007 | 327 266 | 167 344 | 159 922 | 88 109 | 58 520 | 29 589 | 26,9 | 35,0 | 18,5 |
2008 | 325 440 | 166 488 | 158 952 | 86 007 | 56 819 | 29 188 | 26,4 | 34,1 | 18,4 |
2009 | 324 472 | 165 988 | 158 484 | 85 080 | 55 871 | 29 209 | 26,2 | 33,7 | 18,4 |
2010 | 327 780 | 167 817 | 159 963 | 85 967 | 56 185 | 29 782 | 26,2 | 33,5 | 18,6 |
2011 | 332 881 | 170 256 | 162 625 | 85 742 | 55 810 | 29 932 | 25,8 | 32,8 | 18,4 |
Girls leave their childhood home earlier than boys. Conscription may be one of the reasons why boys continue to live at home, but the difference is too large to be explained by that alone.
Today, as many as 68 per cent of girls but 45 per cent of boys have moved away from home by the time they are 20. The percentage is unchanged for girls from the year before, for boys it grew by four percentage points.
Finland has a total of 57,000 persons who have turned 30 and hold the status of a child in their family, and 44,000, or 77 per cent, of them are men. However, the number of such persons with the status of a child and aged at least 30 has decreased by around one thousand from the previous year.
Figure 13A. Young men aged 18 to 30 by family status in 2011
![Figure 13A. Young men aged 18 to 30 by family status in 2011](perh_2011_02_2012-11-09_kat_006_en_001.gif)
Figure 13B. Young women aged 18 to 30 by family status in 2011
![Figure 13B. Young women aged 18 to 30 by family status in 2011](perh_2011_02_2012-11-09_kat_006_en_002.gif)
Source: Population and Cause of Death Statistics, Statistics Finland
Inquiries: Marjut Pietiläinen 09 1734 2798, Timo Nikander 09 1734 3250, vaesto.tilasto@stat.fi
Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma
Updated 9.11.2012
Official Statistics of Finland (OSF):
Families [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-3231. Annual Review 2011,
6. More than one half of boys live at home at the age of 20
. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 18.8.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/perh/2011/02/perh_2011_02_2012-11-09_kat_006_en.html