More than 12% of Irish in their 20s emigrate, with housing access a major concern

Eighty six per cent of survey respondents said they were very concerned about housing.

The majority of Irish people in their mid-20s are “very concerned” about access to housing, while at least one in eight such people have emigrated, a new study has found.

The latest edition of the CSO’s Growing Up in Ireland study, a periodic survey of young Irish people born in 1998, shows pronounced income inequality also exists already for that age cohort.

Of those surveyed, just over a third, or 34%, of respondents said they were struggling to make ends meet.

That finding is skewed in terms of education, with three in five respondents who have attained a degree at this point in their lives far more likely to be saving regularly.

Head of the study at the CSO Katie O’Farrell felt the "most interesting" aspect of the survey was the 86% of respondents who said they were very concerned about housing. This is due to the fact that more than 60% of the 3,380 people who responded to the survey said they were living at home for “mostly financial reasons”.

Of those living independently, three in five were renting privately, with just one in eight having purchased a home.

Overall, the survey — which has been conducted roughly every five years since the respondents were nine years old in 2008 — saw a response rate of just under 50%, which the researchers said stands up well in terms of similar trends across European nations.

More than 12% of respondents have emigrated and were excluded from the main survey. Of those who have left the country, the majority said they planned to stay away from Ireland for 12 months or more, with roughly 60% of those having travelled to either the UK or Australia.

Some 43% of those said they had left Ireland for employment opportunities. The same cohort were not asked whether or not housing, or difficulties accessing same in Ireland, had been a factor in their decision to leave.

The median weekly salary for the 86% of respondents who are in regular employment was €558. However, that figure is skewed between those with a degree and those without, with the former earning €613 a week on average as opposed to €485.

That statistic was particularly acute for women, with those with a degree earning €154 a week more than those without.

Separately, a definite gender pay gap is already present for the group of 25-year-olds, with men earning €64 more a week than women already.

Mental health 

While the overwhelming majority of people asked said they were in very good physical health, the study presents a definite decline in mental health levels, with the numbers of those self-reporting depression, anxiety, stress and low self-esteem all having climbed since the 2018 version of the study.

The survey noted one in five respondents had used cocaine in the previous year, while a majority of men with a degree-level education engaged in excessive alcohol drinking, when measured against World Health Organization standards.

While such problematic drinking is notably higher among men, just under 40% of all respondents were noted as engaging in hazardous levels of alcohol use.