Simon Kuestenmacher

Reminder that cultural differences play a significant role here.

Also Scandinavian social democracy.

That maybe explains the gap between Scandinavia and the UK or France, but social democracy doesn’t get you all the way from Italy to Sweden.

interesting is the diffrence between Czech Republic and Slowakia

The old border of the Holy Roman Empire runs between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Slovakia and Hungary are both on the wrong side of that border. Slovenia, on the other hand, is on the right side.

And so was most of Italy, but is it so different because of the south?

It's the Hajnal Line, demarcating historical marriage patterns in different parts of Europe, linked to economic patterns. @hbdchick has the goods.

I would love to overlay 1. average property price as prop of HH income 2. Female labour force participation age 45-70 3. Ikea stores per capita, 4. WW sales of cookbooks in each countries cuisine

hey...don't underestimate the power of La Mamma...#Mediterranean, it kills all other variables...

I was trying to capture the power of mamma in the female labour force participation 45 to 70 figure. Any better suggestions for a variable?

Culture? Religion? Strong differences btw Mediterranean and Northern Europe.

Un-scientific theory: The level of ground services in the parental home is lowest in Scandinavia, and your mom will give you a hard time every day for not helping around the house. Whereas in Italy, Mamma makes great food and does your laundry too. So why move?

Very un-scientific. :P. Few years ago we had a minister who said "Young italians live with their families 'cause they are mama's boys". He said this when the unemployment rate among u30 was around 40%. Just to say, we are unlucky with our jobs and also with our ministers.

In Finland, young people receive unemployment benefit and housing allowance. It is a shame over here if a young person can not become independent. It's not about jobs, it's a cultural issue.

Well, Italy cannot afford to pay particular unemployment benefit (except for a temporary unemployment subside, and not for anyone) or housing allowance. It's all about Maastricht parameters (and a bad management of our budget at least in the last 30 years).

Furthermore, the drama is that 25-35s are in a state of diffuse depression, pessimism and uncertainty of the future. And they are living this situation, watching governments taking more care of o60 than of u35.

This even if in the last 15 years over 60 has become the wealthiest group. Why this situation? Italy is one of the Eu Country with the highest number of o60 (and lowest of u30) , so every political party tries to build their electoral pool there, ignoring young people.

Good points! And perhaps one reason for low nativity is young living with their parents and not starting a family? So the process amplifies itself.

For sure. I mean, the western trend on nativity is clear. However, in Italy (not only), if u combine the lack of future perspective of my generation (pessimism) with our struggle to make ends meet, how to think about a family and a child? It's almost irresponsible to consider.