At 29 years old, 35% of young men from Reunion still live with their parents, compared to 16% in mainland France, shows a recent INSEE study based on 2018 data. This share has increased significantly, on the island, in ten years. It is only from the age of 27 that more than half of young men have left home on the island., compared to 23 years for their counterparts in France. In total, 61% of young Reunion Islanders aged 16 to 29 live with their parents, a significantly higher proportion than in mainland France (47%). The phenomenon also concerns young people who have a job : 44% live in their parents’ home, compared to 31% in mainland France. Explication : “Living in independent accommodation most often requires having a job, si possible durable, notes INSEE. Or, in Reunion in 2020, only 25% of 15-29 year olds have a job, compared to 44% in France”. Furthermore, young working Reunion Islanders often hold low-skilled and precarious jobs, insufficient to guarantee them financial autonomy. The high price of rents and the shortage of social housing do not help matters. Long-term cohabitation is less marked among girls. Young Reunionese women leave home earlier, from the age of 22 for half of them. No doubt because they are quite young mothers : at 22, 24% of them already have a child, i.e. three times more than in mainland France, where half of the girls have already left the family cocoon at 21.
BOYS FROM REUNION ARE STRUGGLING TO LEAVE THE FAMILY NEST
