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Articles / Germans are Movie-Freaks, Bulgarians Prefer Mum:

Germans are Movie-Freaks, Bulgarians Prefer their Mum

Are German youngsters more cinema-mad than the Slovaks? At what age do young Europeans leave their parental house? What country offers the best chances of employment to young Europeans who haven’t had the chance to profit from proper education? At the beginning of this year, Eurostat portraits the life of youngsters all over the European Union in 2009, and comes up with some interesting results. Bulgarians don’t leave their parents house until about 30, and European youngsters in general visit musea more often than the 30+.

Youngsters represent an important part of the EU population; on the 1st of January 2009, the 27 EU countries were home of 95 million Europeans aged between 15 and 29, which corresponds to about a fifth of the total EU population. The statistics concerning young Europeans confirm that European youth has different habits from the other generations, but more importantly that youngster’s lifestyles change according to country.

Youngsters leave home earlier in France, Finland and the Netherlands

The average age for youngsters to leave the parental house differs hugely from country to country, even though men tend to stick around more than women in all EU member states. According to statistics of 2009, the average age for men to leave home is 23,1 years in Finland and 24,2 years in France and the Netherlands. In Bulgaria, Slovenia and Slovakia, young men leave home much later, the average age being 31,5 years. Women seek their independence earlier in all member states; at 22 in Finland and at 30 in Slovakia.

Increasing difficulties in finding employment

With the crisis still dropping its shadow on the EU employment market, youngsters seem to be a fragile group concerning the employment market. In October 2009, 20,7% of youngsters aged under 25 were unemployed. The statistic does not only represent a growth of 0,5% over less than a month, but particularly shows us that youth unemployment is much higher than for the total EU population: in 2009 only 9,3% of the EU citizens were unemployed. The Netherlands show the best opportunities for youngsters, with only 7,2% of unemployed youth. It’s the most difficult to find a job in Spain (42,9%) or Latvia (33,6%). Over all, youth unemployment in the EU increased with about 5% since 2008.

In 2008, about 4 out of 10 young employees had a temporary contract. For the youngsters aged 15-24, the main reason is that their contract is study-related (40% of young Europeans replied that their contract concerns an internship or apprentice, which in average is of 3 to 6 months). In 37% of the cases, youngsters have temporary contracts because they cannot find permanent jobs. Whereas all age groups in Spain, Portugal and Poland show an increase of temporary contracts, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania have very little temporary contracts to offer, regardless of age. In Germany, Luxemburg Austria and Slovenia, the gap between youngsters and other age groups is big; it’s essentially youngsters that suffer from the unstable employment market.

percentage of unemployed youth per country

Youngsters participate more to cultural activities

In 2008, more than 3 out of 4 of EU youngsters (aged 16-29) went to the cinema at least once during the year. This is almost twice as much than the 30+ citizens: only one third of them went to see a film on the big screen. The most movie-mad youngsters are Germans (87%) and Danish (85%). Bulgarian and Latvian youngsters are the least interested; respectively only 38% and 53% went to the movies that year.

More than half of EU youth went to a performance show in 2008, such as theatre or concerts. This time, it’s Estonia that takes the lead with 71%, followed by Portuguese and Slovak theatre freaks (70% each). It’s the Maltese (29%) and Bulgarian (32%) that mostly stayed away from theatres.

Musea and art galleries have been quite busy with EU youngsters; more than half of you went there at least once in 2008. Less than half of 30+ citizens felt the same way (42%). Finnish and Slovak youth go to expositions most often (63% and 61%). The Maltese and Bulgarian youngsters don’t appreciate musea that much (14% and 21%)

More info:

You can consult the Eurostat report for more information on the life and lifestyles of EU youth; demography, health, education, employment, ICT (Information and Communication Technology), culture, social involvement….
It’s 190 pages and you can find them here:
http://www.europaforum.public.lu/fr/actualites/2009/12/eurostat-jeunes/etude-jeunes.pdf