Proportion of young Poles living with parents rises to almost 40%

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Almost two fifths of young Poles now live with their parents, representing a significant rise compared to two decades ago, new data from state research agency CBOS show.

In its latest report on so-called “nestlings” (gniazdownicy), CBOS found that, among Poles aged 25 to 35 who are unmarried and do not have children of their own, 39% of them live with their parents or other guardians. That is up from a figure of 29% recorded in 2005 and 35% in 2017.

A large majority, 64%, say they have no plans to move out anytime soon.

The study found that a majority of nestlings are men (58%). However, CBOS noted that, while men are more likely than women to remain at home in every age group, “with age the proportion of nesting men decreases, while the percentage of women increases”.

Meanwhile, a majority of nestlings live in rural areas (61%) while only 3% live in the largest cities (those with a population of 500,000 or above).

The most frequently cited reasons for continuing to live with parents were, unsurprisingly, economic: a lack of housing (51%), lower living costs (42%), and a lack of sufficient income (39%). However, most of the nestlings say they work (83%) while 72% claim to be financially independent from their parents.

Poland recorded the largest increase in housing prices among European countries last year, according to a recent study by consultancy Deloitte. It found that the average cost per square metre of a new home in Warsaw is now higher than in Rome.

However, a significant minority of nestlings also said they have stayed at home due to emotional attachment to their parents (21%) or to provide help to their parents (14%).

Here a gender gap was visible, with young men more likely to point to economic factors (e.g. 44% of them cited lack of sufficient income as a reason, compared to 33% of women). Young women are more likely to cite emotional attachment (28%, compared to 16% for men) or parental care (20% to 10%).

CBOS’s findings echo those published last year by Statistics Poland (GUS), a state agency, which found that, in 2022, 33% of unmarried, childless Poles aged 25-34 lived with their parents, amounting to 1.7 million people. Almost two thirds were men.

According to Eurostat, Poland has the fourth-highest proportion of people aged 25-34 living with their parents among all EU countries. Only Croatia, Slovakia and Greece have higher figures. Unlike GUS and CBOS’s data, the Eurostat figures also include young people who are married and/or have children.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Vitaly Gariev/Unsplash

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.