Leaving the Parental Home: Census-based Estimates for China, Japan, South Korea, United States, France, and Sweden

Using the iterative intra-cohort interpolation procedure, this article tries to remedy the lack of data on home-leaving by providing an international comparison of estimated census-based single-year age-specific net rates of leaving home for males and females in China, Japan, South Korea, United States, France, and Sweden. It demonstrates that large differences in the age pattern of leaving the parental home between the East Asian and the Western countries. For example, the median ages at home-leaving of males and females in the three East Asian countries studied were higher than those in the three Western countries studied by a margin of 2-3 years. The role played by social and cultural traditions as well as by ethnic ideologies in the large differences in the home-leaving pattern between the East Asian and Western countries is also considered.