Young Men Staying at Home

A new movie called ?Failure to Launch? starring Matthew McConaughey deals with the difficulty of ejecting young men in their late 20?s and 30?s from the family home. This phenomena is at it?s greatest in Italy where more than half of Italian men between the age of 25 and 35 still live at home. It is blamed for the plummeting fertility rate in that country.

Whilst the topic draws media comment in Australia, statistics available do not show this level of ?nest-clingers? but a trend is evident. Over the 10 years to 2004, the percentage of 25-34 year olds (both sexes) living with parents was 10.5% at the start of the period, increasing to 12.5% by the end of the period. This is a long way short of 50% but nevertheless shows a 25% increase. Some of these are no doubt what are called in France "le generation kangourou" - young adults moving out then coming back again (..and again..) when the relationship ends, money runs out, car break's down etc. For a wider discussion of the factors relating to the baby boomers' children living at home see the 1993 article by Robyn Hartley at http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/fm1/fm36rh1.html

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