NEWS

Greek men are mommy’s boys

It seems that the stereotype of the average Greek man who lives at home until a worryingly advanced age and relies on his mother to do all his cooking and cleaning might be accurate after all. According to figures made public yesterday by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, Greeks are more likely to live at home with their parents until their late 20s or mid-30s than almost any other European men. The numbers indicate that 56 percent of Greek men aged 25 to 34 live in their parents’ home. Only men in Bulgaria (61 percent) and Slovenia (60) percent are more reliant on their mothers and fathers. By contrast, only 8 percent of Finns, 4 percent of Swedes and 3 percent of Danes in the same age group live at their parental homes. The EU average was 32 percent. Greek men also rank last in terms of the proportion who cohabit with their partners. However, the survey was also revealing about the tendencies of Greek women in their 20s and 30s. It indicated that 36 percent of them also remain with mom and dad between the ages of 25 and 34, just behind Slovenia (38 percent) and Slovakia (42 percent). The EU average was 20 percent. Unsurprisingly, Greece also ranks high in the 18-24 age group, where 67.7 percent of women and 84.4 percent of men live with their parents. The EU average in this age group was 71 percent for women and 82 percent for men. The survey, which used 2008 figures, found that 46 percent of Europeans aged 18 to 34 (or 51 million people in total) still live with their parents.

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