“Young Adults Delay Moving Out: Statistics show rise in Boomerang Kids due to Student Debt and Housing Market”

Young people later start living on their own. This is evident from new figures from Statistics Netherlands. In 2011, more than half of the so-called young adults were already working when they left the parental home, in 2019 this had grown to two-thirds.

Once on their own, they returned less often to the parental home. This group, also known as ‘boomerang children’, decreased slightly from 5.4 percent in 2017 to 4.6 percent in 2020.

Lonneke van den Berg is a demographer at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute and co-wrote the CBS report. She is not surprised by the figures: “It is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to be able to live on their own. That has to do with the housing market, of course. House prices are rising enormously and there are fewer and fewer rental properties.”

In addition, students often build up a huge debt due to the student loan system. Van den Berg: “Students then decide whether to go to university, which means they build up a debt. They then continue to live at home so as not to incur additional costs, for example for renting their own place to live.”

It seems striking that there are fewer boomerang children. “But that can also be explained,” says Van den Berg. “Because people leave home later, they are a bit older and their situation is often more stable. In terms of work, in terms of relationships. As a result, they have fewer reasons to return to their parental home.”

Young adults may return to live with their parents for a variety of reasons, such as financial difficulties or a relationship that has ended. It is clear that this sometimes leads to friction. “Research shows that parents are not always happy when children come back,” says Van den Berg.

One of those ‘boomerang children’ is Janno Rook (24) from Bovensmilde in Drenthe. After living in rooms in Nijmegen for a number of years (he studied political science), he returned to the parental home in 2020.

“It was of course very boring during the lockdown, alone in a student room. But the costs also rose enormously. I now have a student debt of about 40,000 euros and renting a room can easily cost 800 or sometimes 1000 euros these days. just not,” explains Rook.

He’s mostly saving now. Rook: “I’m now studying in Groningen and I’m now reducing my student debt a bit with a job. I could live here for another three years or longer, but I’d prefer to run my own household.”

His parents actually like it a lot. “He has his own study, his own bedroom. So plenty of room. Of course it’s not a good development, the housing market is the problem, isn’t it,” says father Marco. “Well, he’s welcome here. We don’t have to get rid of him, you know.”