Living Arrangements of Young Adults in Italy and Norway: The Significance of Gender, Sociocultural Background, Work, and Money

Italy and Norway are characterized by different household patterns with young Italians being more likely to live in their parents' house and young Norwegians being more likely to live independently. This paper asks why, and how these differences can be understood. We conduct multivariate analyses of the interaction of gender, sociocultural background, and economic activity indicators at the individual level. The results show that the propensity of young adults to live with parents and not in a couple appears to be generally more sensitive to individual characteristics in Italy than in Norway. This applies to both sociocultural and economic characteristics.