For a decade, the average age at which a young person emancipates in the European Union has been around 26. The Nordic countries win, where it is common to do so at the age of 20. They lose Croatia, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria and Spain, all of which have young people who leave their parents’ homes after the age of 30. In the latter case, moreover, the number has been rising for twenty years: in 2010, the average was 27. “This is really the first major indicator that we are going in a bad way,” summed up Josep Maria Raya, director of the Chair of Housing and the Future at the University of Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and the Association of Promoters and Builders of Catalonia (APCE), who was responsible for presenting a study on the subject yesterday.