My parents have never married. I feel like most people who marry in Sweden do it because they think it’s a nice tradition, not because they have or need to.

if you bought a house together in sweden you are practically married xD

watching this as a swede thinking it's weird that you kinda "have" to marry before kids lol

If there was stats on how long people spend together before they get married, Sweden would excel in that. Usually couples that get married have been together for like 10+ years.

My parents have been a couple since 1971 and never married. On the rare occasion someone has asked why, the answer is "What difference would a ring do?".

Interesting how you thought it's weird to get kids before marraige just after you saw how 82% think religion is unimportant with us. :P There's definitely a connection there. :)

Even though a Swedish couple might not ever get married, it's still very common to get engaged. Although being engaged in Sweden is usually not an acceptance of a marriage proposal, but more like a mutual declaration of love to each other and also a way to show people you are in a committed relationship. Both you and your partner wear matching engagement rings, usually plain gold, with your partner's name and the date you got engaged engraved on the inside. It's almost like a "light version" of being married and you can be engaged for years and years without actually tying the knot so to speak. This has been a thing in Sweden for decades.

Just because a couple doesn't share the same surname it doesn't mean they're not married. My mum kept her maiden name when she and my dad got married.

My daughter moved out when she was 17 and she’s been doing great on her own! She is 20 now and she is so mature and doesn’t need any help (financial or other) from mom and dad. She was in high school when she moved out and she was so ready to live by herself even though I would’ve waited for couple of years. We are best friends so it’s not like she wanted to escape her parents 😄 We are Finnish but the culture is very same with Swedes.

In both Norway and Sweden, you have to move out early especially if you want to do a certain education. Because on many smaller places, they don't offer the thing you want. Education is very centralised to cities and not smaller towns, of course we have schools in smaller towns too but they often don't offer the line you want or you want a specific school etc.

I was in a relationship with a girl from the US for 1.5 years. At one point we were having a conversation online with people we didn't really know and I explained that in Sweden it's very common for people to not get married and that both my parents (separately) and my sister had been in relationships for decades without getting married. I continued by saying that I didn't really see the need to ever get married but if my girlfriend wanted to, I didn't have a problem with it. She later said people had messaged her privately and asked why she was with someone who didn't want to commit to our relationship. I'm a really calm guy but that made me so incredibly angry. What business was it of theirs what we did in our relationship? I don't think I'll ever understand that.

This whole difference in how one lives can be described in one word: religion, or that religion in the United States exists in everyday life, with a completely different presence than in Sweden.

Btw, it's quite common to be married but not take your partners name. My mother, for instance, didn't take my father's last name because it would just cause problems for her carreer wise. Makes perfect sense to me. You'll also see the guy take the girl's name sometimes, or both of the couple taking on a completely new name.

I so love the Swedish outlook on life, total respect for other people's independence. Excellent.

Maybe as the swedish welfare system is based around helping individuals so they doesn't need to relay on other people have made swedes independent.

Som följare i flera år av din kanal har jag märkt hur du blir mer och mer "svensk" i ditt beteende.

My parents are approaching their late 60s and have 3 +30 year old children and are not married. It's definitely not as important here as it is in the U.S.

My parents' proposal: Dad: I've made the arrangements for christening [third son]. Mom: Hey, as long as we're in church anyway, wanna get married? Dad: Ha, sure, why not. ...Then Dad forgot all about it until he had to sign the paperwork the day before. Surprise!

I'm from Norway, my parents have been together since they were 20, have two kids, still not married. And I will probably do the same.

The only reason to get married is for simplicity associated with inheritance in case of death. (Unmarried with 2 kids, middle aged)

Man I love watching your videos because they exactly speek for me as a foreigner living in Sweden trying to understand the society.

There are BIG legal differences between being married or just living together. "Sambolagen" is not at all the same thing as "Äktenskapsbalken". But many Swedes believe it's pretty much the same. Until something happens.. 😉

Stefan these are great videos. really enjoy the examination of Sweden and what it means to be a Swede. for a lot of people, they want to know what it would be like if they were there and you do a great job of assisting with that.

As a person living in Sweden and I have watched a few of your videos, you are a very positive person and I love that you are willing to learn more about Sweden but also the language, btw I like your Swedish too!

I am Korean 🇰🇷 and in a relationship with a Swede 🇸🇪 and this video is very helpful for me to understand where he is coming from! 🤔

Super interesting! You really mention some good points there :)

Always fun informative, and you get an outside perspective as well. And fun as I spent a year in Ithaca NY way back and remember how I compared USA and Sweden back then.

Love your videos man can’t wait to go see my Swedish friend he was a foreign exchange student

yep my parents have been together for 30 years and they never married. they're not even engaged. and i dont see anything weird in that :)

American in Sweden here: I don't think you can say people are independent in Sweden, per se. They are highly dependent on collective bargaining and public policy for wellbeing, which means that they do not need to be as dependent on their families and their romantic partners. This of course has its upsides, but it can also mean that you have fewer "pushes" to engage with family and to get married. That can spell loneliness. In most countries, US included, marriage is as much an economic institution as it is a romantic institution. Our expectations as Americans is that your family and close circle (and church) will pay for you if you end up in dire straights, not the national collective. Welfare is allocated to the smaller unit, which of course means you are in trouble if your network is not particularly well-off.

@stefanthyron Have you watched the TV-show "Married at first sight"? I find it so interesting how the Swedish and the American versions of that show differ. The Swedish participants seem to treat it like a dating experiment and seem to have a lot harder to commmit to the mariage-part of the whole process wereas the American participants go all in from the start and view the experiment like any other "ordinary" marriage right away. You should really watch it, both versions are on SVT play.

Have you tryed to sort out the" allemansrätten" yet ? Im waiting for that episode . Probably the most exotic topic of Sweden to forigners ?

And all of this makes me love being Swedish :P

Amazing! Im learning as a swede to live in Spain with spanish culture and oh what a difference. Im a total hermit amongst dramatic superchatty spanish culture. So interesting!

I've watched videos on this channel in a very sporadic way since the beginning, and I'm still as interested and surprised at how things we do here and that is so normal to us, is not for others. I've noticed it myself of course when I've been abroad, especially Swedes Vs Spaniards, Spanish people are SO different - but in a good way!

I find Stefan's reflections so interesting; often about stuff I've never, as a Swede myself, given a thought and this is definitely one of those. Almost every couple I know in my age (30+) with children is unmarried and those who aren't got married after the births to celebrate their parenthood.. sort of.

I love to listen to you comparing the difference between the US and Sweden. And also how you react to them. 💕

I’d say that it probably reaches back several hundred years. Before the 1700s just being engaged was considered fine in rural areas because getting married was a cost not all could bare and it was not beneficial for the society to have people hold off on starting families (considering high child mortality, war etc.) in the 1700s (I believe) new laws were made to force marriage. Then again in the middle 1800s (1858 I think) women age 25 and older could get emancipated, but married women were not. So couple, particularly working class in the major cities, started to cohabitate since quite a few women were not willing to give up their freedom. It gave rise to an expression “gift på stockholmska”. Just a historical perspective on why cohabitation

I'm one of those who moved from home for upper secondary school at 16! I moved back to them after I graduated though... Probably would have moved to wherever I'd go to university if there wasn't a pandemic going on... Really enjoying all the videos!

Got to add one more thing, I’ve lived and worked in Sweden and in America, and Sweden is way way better on so many levels!! From work environment, relations between boss/employees, no hierarchy!! Friendly atmosphere etc etc!

I would love to see more videos when your outside in the City just too see how it looks like.

So interesting video! I studied in Arizona for 6months and remember being confused when all my friends where like ”I just wanna get merried!”.. 👀🤷🏼‍♀️ They where so young then and I remember thinking ”but there are sooo much MORE things I want to do!”. ☺️

I'm one of the exceptions to moving out of my parent's apartment early. I was 24. But I have never had to do something that I've heard and read that a lot of kids have done. They move out, can't make it on the outside and move back in with their parents.

Damn dude, im from Poland, just moved to Sweden, and now im ur new sub. Take care :-)

NRK, Norwegian Broadcasting had a series about the independance of people in Norwway. Apparently it comes from the fact that we don't really need family to help us out with student loans etc. I also remember that when I started studying, the norwegian national student bank "Lånekassa" gives kids more money if they move out from their parents house. If you live at home, they expect your parents to pay part of your cost of living. So students in Norway rather move in with others or friends and try being independant. It also comes from the fact that norwegian kids are more trained in being independent from an early age. Parents expect the kids to move out, so they can do what they like doing. They are also not always so interested in being nannies for the grandkids. It follows through our hole life basically. The state doesn't care about the kids resposibilities and if they behave the right way, so kids develop a more independant way of life.

As a Swede, i'm quite independent. I honestly want to be in a relationship now. I'm 22 at the moment, and i want to be in a relationship like i said. I just don't know where to look, as i'm an introvert. It doesn't help me that i hqve autism and ADHD, as i was born with it, but it would be nice to be in a relationship now

The American culture and way of living is still so burdened by their Puritan heritage.

I'm a Turkish, and I just came across this channel. From what I've read the reviews, I don't think marriage is common in Sweden . In fact, as a Turk, I was surprised because this situation is not very common in Turkey. Couples who love each other in Turkey get married and start living together after marriage. It's very rare for a couple to have children without getting married. If a couple has a child without marriage, they get married right away. It's different in my culture to live together without getting married and have kids and be single forever.

I moved out when I was 16 (for school), got my own apartment when I was 17. One of the best things I''ve ever done.

I moved from home at 19 (after military service) but my younger brother moved at 16, for school in another city.

It’s not just being independent. Some Swedes take relations from one night stand, some take one year to be in a relationship. They are open to choices although they may like you. If they feel it’s coming, usually they don’t say no.

In Sweden if the high school you want to go to is not offered in your local area you can either get paid for bus/train or as in my case be eligible for accommodation if it's more than like 7 swedish miles away. (In 2007-2011) I received 2800 kr /month + 1000 normal 'child support' for living out of my parents house. We found like the cheapest apartment that was at the time 2100kr /month (still live in it today it's 3800 rises + new balcony) My dad paid the rent, internet and that monthly. (like 3k /month for 4 years thx dad) And I lived of the money I got form the government. So yes you get money so you can move at the age of 16. Best thing I ever done moving from a small town to VÄSTERÅS. Best town.

I was always having quarrels with my parents, so I moved out at the age of 17 before getting my studio flat/the Swede. Independence is also correct, which was a major culture clash with my British now ex husband. He wanted ne to be a house wife and him providing and I wanted to work

Marriage is more of an afterthought in Sweden.

My parents were married (not any longer), but both kept their last names, so people can be married and have different last names too.

I'm pretty sure that the reason the age of moving out is so much lower is because a) wages are much higher including for jobs aimed at young people which in other economies would be considered "low skill" and therefore low paid, like serving or working in retail, and b) because rents are not crazy high due to the rent control processes that exist, making it affordable to move out to work or into student accommodation which is particularly cheap. The housing issue is a bit trickier, and I'd be really interested for you to discuss one thing that I've not heard mentioned so far: access to stable housing. Maybe you've discussed this in one of your videos but the renting model (specifically first hand vs second hand contract) slows supply down whilst keeping rents low, and when I lived in Sweden 10 years ago there was a real crisis of accessibility leading to a lot of illegal trading of contracts for cash under the table. I'd be very interested to hear your take on this.

Fascinating!

Exactly the same in Finland. I think most people still want a wedding if they do want to get married but that's expensive, and most people in their late 20s-early 30s can either afford buying a house or having a wedding so they choose the more practical choice which makes a more concrete difference in their lives. 🏡 Same thing with kids, getting married beforehand doesn't really make any difference and people are not going to judge you if you're not married so might as well do it later if that's something you want and save all that money for raising a child which is actually going to make a drastic change in your day-to-day life. 🤷🏼‍♀️Most of my friends and cousins with kids who are in their 20s-40s aren't married and even my 97-year-old grandma doesn't care (but imagine explaining this to my Indian parents-in-law 😁).

As a Swede, I have the explanation for you: People not getting married is related to the general unimportance of religion in Sweden. Marriage is seen by most people as an unnecessary religious ritual. If you want to live with your partner and be committed to each other, you can do so out of the will of both people, instead of needing this ceremony of marriage that really doesn't change anything other than on paper. It might sound cold to non-Swedes, but really, religion and anything related to it is seen as naive, unscientific and in many ways almost silly and backwards. Religion is pretty much considered a thing of the past that really has no place in modern society among people capable of critical thinking, because science tells us that religion is nothing more than fairy tales for the gullible. Now, there are absolutely religious people in Sweden too, and they will disagree with me, but this is by far the general mentality of Swedes. There are of course always exceptions and some get married anyway because it is traditional or because they want to show commitment to their partner, but it is relatively uncommon. Nobody cares if you're "sambos" living together or if you're married.

Sweden has actually quite a long tradition of people living together without marriage. Even back in the 1700s there were areas in Sweden where it was common for young people without a estate of their own to live together, at times even have kids, without being married. It was also not all that uncommon for couples to live together for many years and then when a kid were on the way the got married. The the industralisation came and many young people moved to the cities with many people and few houses. There were a term called "Stockholm Marriages", which were living together as a married couple without actually being married. I think it was now it started to be more accepted, but it was still very much a thing of the lower classes. Then you have the "post-war" generation that grew up with the "folkhemet", worker-romantisation and egalitarian view that made revolt against the old. To many of them it was a mark of defiance and independence to not get married (especially for women in that generation). There is also this thing that many Swedes want to keep their promises. The "until death do is apart" thingi seems to many as something that is impossible to know if one can keep. Hence they tend to feel reluctant to make it. Also some people connect the concept of marriage with "keeping it together" out of duty (or for the kids) rather the keeping the love alive. And with the "partnership" so close in the law to the marriage many do not feel the need to actually get married.

On point....good commentary 🌿🌎🌍🌏🌿

Stefan several decades/centuries ago: "I grew up with a lot of these values of getting married before having sex and it's definitely a stigma around sex". Time passes, old social standards dying off!

There are also a lot of people that have been in a relationship for _ages_ and don't even live together. I'm talking over 10 years together. And I do understand why it's a functional concept for many. Scandinavians appreciate their "own" time a lot.

Hi Stefan. I am Canadian and coming to Stockholm this October. Generally speakin and based on yoru experience, give me an overview of weather. I mean, how's the weather each season of the year? Especially summer and winter time.

This independence comes from, as I believe it, a pretty equal distribution of the assets of the country for all citizens. Free education, free medical care etc. This sets the foundation for each citizens well being. Of course there is unjust here and we do struggle with poverty, unemployment and much more. But the majority do live a good life and can afford to live it in a single household.

I moved out my parents house in the age of 20, nothing wierd about that. Have 2 children, never been married but engaged 3 times. But i do jump in ralationship pretty Quick, when i'm in love, i show it 🤩😂. There some more data for you. Keep up the good work!!

I enjoyed the video! :)

My parents are married, and have been that for at least 34 years (that's my age), it's rare. In Sweden people aren't forced into marriage like it is in different countries around the world. People can choose and decide together what to do if you have a partner that you love. Like u said many of us swedes want to enjoy life as an individual, for example travel to different places in the country or around the world. It's like Annika said, a very big decision to make.

In the UK, marriage isn't so common nowadays. With high living expenses and few people following religion, it just doesn't sit as a high priority unless it particularly important to an individual.

You should then compare family dynamics. Should be interesting. After living as an American Pacific Asian in Sweden for the past 5 years I’ve noticed tremendous differences in the family dynamics.

Have just bought a ready-to-live study apartment for my youngster in the [bigger] city he's gonna start his studying in a year. He's 15 now. Not a big deal for Russia, too. Me, I left the mom's house at my 17. And was never regretting it.

As Stefan said almost half of swedish households are "single households" This is great for an introvert as me, but sometimes it almost feels like we have a "loneliness epidemic". Making friends and dating as an adult can be extremely difficult when everyone has the safety of Swedish (personal) independence. Even if it scares me, I am sometimes thinking of moving to another culture, where I'm "forced" to be social and interact with more people.

Alot of societies that are more family oriented (different history ) the smallest "legal" unit is the family, where as in Sweden it's the individual. In that there are not as much social safety nets as the family is supposed to take care of you in some countries. There are ofc pros and cons to this.

I'm the oldest of three brothers and my parents got married about 6 months after I was born, and that was in the 1960’s, so at least this isn't a new thing here.

Always very interesting to hear foreigners opinions about Sweden. Though you’re a bit less American now. 😄 However, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about the US concerning the same topics: It’s fascinating how the US is far ahead the rest of the world in science, medicine, economics and so on. But when it comes to family policy and philosophical beliefs and to realise there are different ways of living your life, USA is so far behind. We’re not in Kansa😂… I mean, we’re not in the 1950’s anymore.Wish you a happy journey in life!🤗

I see that you live in Vasastans Röda Bergen right next to Norra Tornen in Hagastaden - I use to live there a few years ago. How do you find it?

Sounds to me like you do understand and are well on your way to being the same 😀 Lack of religion is in some ways a defining characteristic of Sweden. I've been interested in this since I was young because I lived abroad for 6 years growing up and was exposed to more religious cultures (UK/France, so not all that religious but with international schools and many mixed cultures). Many foreign visitors on hearing this think Sweden will be actively atheist, but most Swedes just haven't thought about it all that much. If you aren't brought up with religion it tends to become irrelevant to your life. If you ask them if there is anything supernatural the figure is much higher than 20% and many have vague deist notions but do not believe in a particular religion. So Sweden lacks Religion but isn't fully Atheist.

As you said, when students go to gymnasiet, many have to go to a different city and thus get out of the house. So is the housing for them provided at gymnasiet or do students rent a place together? And are there any specific areas in Stockholm like Liljeholmen which are the general hotspots for students to rent/buy an apartment?

Why should married couple have advantages anyway, regardless of country?

I watched and am confused: what is it you “still don’t understand”, you just explained it? People only get married because of A: Religion demands it. B: social stigma not to. C: Economic/Legal benefits. Non of that applies here, so there’s no need to marry. Marriage does not make your relationship with your partner more valid, commited, monogamous than being commited without a ceremony. Ceremonies are just that, unless you have religious beliefs that you’ll burn in hell for not marrying your partner. What I don’t understand is how SOO many Americans chose to have weddings that are so extremely backward. With that I mean superduper genderstereotyped in the cheesiest imaginable way, with the important addition of “flossing the green”. 2021 still this 19th century normativity, how does that even figure for people in a modern lifestyle? Fathers “giving the bride away” in THIS era?? Mothers saving for their daughters wedding all their lives?? I cannot wrap my head around it. I understand the purely religious bit, and the symbolism is inportant also to humanists who don’t identify as religious this way or the other in both countries. Having lived in SF it makes total sense to me that weddings or love ceremonies can be as individual and varied and non-conventional as their are individuals, regardless of genderidentity of both parties, and that legislation makes it hard to not marry if you have kids, but how is that last bit reasonable? In the rest of the US the norm is still super old fashioned and the same. Also here marriage once was a socioeconomic pact between families and their assets, but what modern thinking person voluntarily uses that vocabulary today and feels genuine? The reason pple get married at all here after having kids etc is to just celebrate their union after the initial infatuation (which is a mature choice) or bc they intend on moving to a more conservative country, or something. People often don’t loose their last name and dudes take the brides name to a good extent in cases were one last name is used, (unsually the more unique name wins). And proposing doesn’t mean man asks woman on knees presenting as expensive a rock as he can afford to persuade her with. Proposal rings aren’t nessecary, engagement bands if used are worn by both, and women propose and often it’s just a mutual decision not involving “risk”, “surprize” etc. Which imo is level headed adult behavior that MEANS something more than fleeting romantic public displays.In California almost anyone can register for the license to be executor of one wedding. You can marry on the beach or in your house etc, and in comparison the UK and Church of England is conservative requiring a church for the ceremony. But other than that... What’s your question? If you live in a nation where you DO live at home until marriage in your 30’s, chances are the brides family pays for the wedding, the families agree and may have set it up, and bride and groom show up, on their families terms. That makes sense too if women needed a husband as legal guardian and marriage means business between families (hello italy). How’s that a thing in a modern and more gender equal society? Please explain, I don’t get it. 🙏

my parents got married two years after they had me and my younger brother, they had been together for years before that too

I'm swedish and I moved out of my home when I was 17 🙂 I moved in with my girlfriend in her apartment (she was 16 at that time btw). My parents didn't even know that I had moved out 😂 I just called my mom and said "Hey mom! I'll be living with my GF from now on. Love you! 😘" (or something like that, I don't remember exactly what I said). And just like that I had "left the nest" forever! 😂 We were both still in high school with 2 respectively 3 years left. We didn't have a lot of money for food, but we made it work somehow (without help from our parents) 🙂.

Good one !

I think our disbelief goes way back to the age of vikings (Asatro) and the switch over to christianity in the 1300.s..In practice we where forced in to Christianity and the church behaved more like a police rather than good nice religion....This was a struggle for us and we lost trust in everything linked to christianity due to this oppression..So even marriage has never been a big thing here.....Some how the stubborn and independent viking still lurking in our brains! :)

Well we married out of technical reasons when we started to own a property and planning for kids. Prior to that we had been Särbos and Sambos for some years. We still have our own last names and our children have both our last names.

Änna lite off topic utifrån videon men. Hade du kunnat tänka dig träffa en av dina följare? (mig menar jag då) Kan lära dig en hel del! Dock i Göteborg 😊

Marriage makes the legal aspects easier, then you don't need a testament/papers like that except for maybe a prenup (which is pretty much only necessary if one of them has 20 million whilst the other doesn't). So I think most swedes consider marriage either necessary due to making their legal life easier or because it's traditional. And as for the whole last name thing, you can be married even though you don't share last names.

"... extremely unique to Sweden". hmmm. Ok, you are an American in Sweden and have seen mainly that country. However, if you look at those phenomena that you talked about, even through the figures that you presented, you will notice that the difference to the other Nordic countries are rather small. A lot of what you talk about are often Nordic/Scandinavian features, some of which may be slightly more pronounced in Sweden but with rather small or sometimes even negligible difference compared with the neighbouring countries.

My parents had me before they got married one year later. By then they had been together for 4 years. Before I met my wife I had only had turbulent, really bad relationships, so I had almost given up the thought of getting married. We now have 3 children, and are married!

And my grandparents wasn’t married when they had their first child, in 1918. My grandfather was still married to another woman and hadn’t got a divorce. When the second child came they were married. It wasn’ t totally ok then but we live in the north of Sweden and at that time if you were engaged it was like marriage. It was often a long way to church and a priest. I got married when I was 38 years old, having all my children, and not having the same father to them all. Most of my relatives are not married. My mother is 80 years old and has been living with her partner for over 30 years after her divorce from my father. It just doesn’t matter either way. I have also kept my last name so my husband and I don’t have the same last name.

Damn why did you use the iMessage notification sound for the circle I though I got a text 😫

It is very interesting that young adults move out of their parents house as early age as 18. I am from Vancouver, BC, considering living in the 2nd most expensive city in the world for property. Majority of young adults can’t afford to move out of their parents house for as long as it takes. This explains that Sweeden has much lower cost of rent/ property that helps the young adults to be independent!!

You are describing Norway 100%.

To be independent is to be free, you can make your own decisions based on your own experiences, ideas or wishes. Not forced to do anything because of social conventions or crap like it. That´s one of many other reasons why Sweden is the best country in the world for you as an individual.

The last time I was single, I was still living in my parents house. After being in a few shorter relationships, I met the guy who later became the father of my two daughters. We moved in together in an apartment after 3 years and 5 years after that we bought the house we live in now. When we became parents, we've been a couple for 12 years... 😁 But our 2:nd child came 1 year after the first one... 😉 We're still not married after 26 years as a couple. Both of our daughters want their parents to get married. And they're supported by my sister and my mother... 😏

Im swedish (born and living) i moved out at age 17 and lived by myself for 7 years, got no kids, ive had roomies thought and ofc got pets, here its normal to wait until u are in late 20s to get kids or at 18 directy after our highscool (ur college), started working at age 7 with my own company (parents did all paperwork and such ofc, i sold bread to households 6 days/week, and had that company for 16 years. Here its more normal for parents to be divorsed than married so thats 100% true. and its normal to live together for anywhere from months to years to live/date with ur partner before popping the question. and 1 thing he didnt mention was... here in sweden we HATE discrimination and lots of people want huge prisoon sentences on racism, like 5-15 years for hatecrimes but there is too much leniency, thought even those people that think any race, religion etc are above anything else (Racists etc) dont get convicted in court as much as we want there is still the dynamic of people justice, rasists get branded quickly when evidence is overvelming and much prison time isnt served thay still get to live the life thay think the people thay hate deserve (rasists becomes outcasts)

I'm swedish. I was 18 and a half when my mother moved out.

Actually in France it’s quite common as well for families to have children without being married. Then for religion younger generations also tend to have less attachement to religion, very interesting video! And in my case I left also my family at age 18 to study design in Paris, France and it was the case for over 80% students in my design school.

The major reason for Swedish kids departing from parents homes SO early (which surprised me as well) is because: it was economically possible and family bonds are less tight as it seems (You know that social distance thang); but just that early "independence" (while parents still giving support as long as they do not find work) is changing right now and the average age of that statistic will rise very rapidly, when people can no longer _afford_ it (a Swedish colleague explained that to me before the pandemic came). The zoomer generation will find it a bad surprise if they took that life model for granted ... and I would just think, well: welcome to reality of the rest of the world.

my dad moved out from his parents when he was sixteen but he always came back home with his dirty laundry😂🤚