When do people in Switzerland move out of their parental homes?

A new study by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) has revealed when young people in Switzerland choose to fly the nest and relocate. Interestingly, the report found that the Swiss are more relaxed when it comes to leaving home compared to nationals from other countries, and that women tend to leave earlier than men.

When do people in Switzerland normally fly the nest?

According to the study, reported by Le Matin, around 23,2 percent of 20-year-olds in Switzerland have already packed their bags and started to houseshare, stay in student housing or rent a house or apartment of their own. By age 22, a majority of young people in the alpine nation will have already moved out of the family home. This rises to 68,4 percent for those who are 25, and by 30, only 6,8 percent of people still live with their parents.

Interestingly, when people choose to leave varies by sex. For example, by 25, 82,5 percent of women have already flown the nest, compared to just 68,4 percent of men. The same is also true for 20-year-olds (32,3 compared to 23,2) and those who are 30, with only 3,1 percent of women choosing to live with their parents, compared to 10,4 percent of men.

This is despite the fact that women, on average, have more contact with their parents compared to men. The FSO found that 40 percent of women have daily contact with their parents via letters, phone calls or get-togethers, compared to just 28 percent of men.

Swiss take longer to leave home than other nationals

What’s more, those with residence permits in Switzerland tend to leave home faster than Swiss citizens. At age 20, the FSO found that 43 percent of French, Italian, Austrian, Liechtensteiner and German citizens had already fled the roost, compared to just 24 percent of Swiss.

The final differences were found between residents of certain Swiss cantons, with people in French and Italian-speaking regions leaving earlier and moving farther away than young people from German-speaking areas - more than 66 percent of German-Swiss live within an hour of their parent's home, compared with just over half of people living in the Romande.

For more information, check out the official study (in German).