Young Portuguese people stay with their parents until relatively late. It’s for this reason that Portugal is one of the European countries where students depend most on their families while pursuing higher education. Portuguese students provide by themselves for just about 44 percent of the typical costs for universities and engineering schools. Housing represents the most significant portion of expenses, above all in Lisbon.

The data comes from a recently published Eurostudent study , which analyses the socio-economic conditions of students in Europe. According to the report, Portugal comes fourth for countries where families pay the largest portion of their children’s education costs: 56 percent of the total cost.

Only Georgia, Ireland and Serbia – where parents of students support 64 percent of costs – have higher percentages than Portugal. In the 28 countries studied, students provide on average, by themselves, two-thirds of their monthly expenses.

The higher financial burden for Portuguese families is directly linked to the fact that Portuguese students are among those who leave their parents’ house the latest. According to Eurostudent, 49 percent of Portuguese students remain with their parents during their undergraduate or masters degrees. This figure is a good deal higher than the international average of 36 percent.

The students who live with their families are those who contribute the least to costs related to their education: they pay 26 percent. As for students who live alone, they pay 60 percent of their costs. “There is a cultural question” which needs to be considered for a better understanding of the data, explains Luísa Cerdeira, a professor at the University of Lisbon: “Families in South