Almost all 25-year-olds who were surveyed as part of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study say they are concerned about the housing situation, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
GUI is a national, longitudinal study of children and young people in Ireland and is a collaborative programme of work between the CSO and the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Inclusion, and Youth (DCEDIY).
This release presents the main results describing the lives of 25-year-olds from the central survey themes of physical health, well-being and key relationships, education, civic participation, and economic participation.
It revealed that almost 60% of the cohort had a degree or a degree equivalent education, and the median weekly income from employment in 2022 for a respondent was 558 euro.
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Just over 73% of 73.2% of respondents were saving on a regular basis, while 58% said they vigorously exercised in the past week.
More than 10% said they have provided care for a family member.
Of those in cohort still living in the parental home, more than six in 10 (62.4%) were doing so for mostly financial reasons.
Some 7.5% of respondents at age 25 years were living outside both the parental home and outside the region they had lived in when they were aged nine.
Some 3.8% of respondents said they owned their own home, however some 80% said they expected to buy a home in the future.
Even those who had moved out of their parents’ home showed a low level of mobility, tending to stay in their local region (71.7%).
Almost the entire group of respondents (97.7%) said they were concerned with the housing situation in Ireland.
Statistician in the Growing Up in Ireland Division Daniel Watts said: “Today’s results from the CSO GUI Cohort ’98 at age 25 are particularly exciting as it was the first Growing Up in Ireland survey that focused exclusively on the individual’s participation, with no questions addressed to their wider family.
“This allowed us to hear the voice of adults living in Ireland clearly which is reflected in the results.”
The results shows that there has been little difficulty in transitioning into the workforce for this group of adults, with more than 80% saying they were in employment at the time of interview while 6.3% said they were unemployed.
According to the data, the majority (85.5%) of the group were in regular employment, earning a median weekly wage of 558 euro.
However, differences in earnings between those with and without a degree were noticeable.
Respondents with a degree earned 613 euro a week compared with 485 euro a week for those without a degree.
There was also evidence of significant income inequality already emerging within this group.
While nearly three-quarters reported they saved regularly, 34.2% reported at least some difficulty making ends meet.
More than one in 10 stated they spent some time taking care of a family member other than childcare while just over one in 20 said they had no close friends.
Nearly nine out of 10 respondents reported themselves as having good to excellent general health.
There was, however, a decline in mental health since this group were aged 20 years.
Levels of self-reported depression, anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem had increased since 2018.
More than three in 10 women (31.5%) said they had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety at some point in their lives.
Women without a higher education self-reported more negative outcomes.
When it comes to alcohol, almost four in 10 engaged in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) considers to be hazardous drinking with higher figures among men, especially men with higher education.
A majority (51.3%) stated they did not smoke nor vape while more than one in five in the group (21.4%) said they had tried cocaine at least once in the past year.
Meanwhile, nearly one in five (19.9%) expressed they had zero interest in politics and the majority (51.1%) had not engaged in any significant political activity in the previous year.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents had also reported experiences of discrimination at least a few times a year but on the other hand, a majority stated they were optimistic about the future.
Most of the people in Cohort ’98 stated they were satisfied with their lives, the survey shows.