Sense of Catalan identity among young people drops from 57% to 36% in ten years

The number of young people who identify as exclusively Catalan or more Catalan than Spanish has dropped by more than 20 percentage points in just a decade.

In 2014, around the time of the Catalan independence consultation, 57% of 16- to 29-year-olds expressed a Catalan identity.

Today, that number has fallen to 36.2%, according to the Catalan Youth Agency's 2024 report on young people, presented on Friday.

According to the report, which references various surveys by Catalonia's Centre for Opinion Studies (CEO), fewer young men (33.7%) feel a sense of Catalan identity than young women (38.7%).

This gender gap was not evident before the 2017 independence referendum, when both sexes showed similar levels of feeling Catalan.

Those aged 18–24 express less Catalan identity (32.6%) than those aged 25–29 (41.6%). The downward trend in self-identifying as Catalan identification is not limited to younger people, but it is more marked that for older generations.

Shift in political leanings

In terms of politics – and as indicated by many other surveys and studies – young people are no longer positioned further to the left than those over 29.

Last year, young people placed themselves on average at 4.3 on a scale where 0 is the far left and 10 is the far right – two-tenths more right-leaning than those over 29.

This shift is particularly notable among men and the 18 to 24 age group.

Housing

Fewer than one in five young people (17.4%) live independently – far below the European average (31.5%) and the pre-2008 figure of 32.6%.

The report estimates that young people would need 18.2 years of full income to buy a 100 m² home.

Rent consumes 62% of their monthly income, on average.

Some 28.7% of young people (ages 18–29) see housing as the country’s biggest problem – an increase of 13 percentage points from 2023 and 27 percentage points over the past decade.

Employment

In terms of employment, youth unemployment (16–29) stood at 15.5% in 2024 – higher than during the economic crisis (9.1% in 2017), but significantly lower than in 2013 (37.5%). It is above the EU average.

Among those employed, nearly one in three is overqualified for their job.

Mental health

Suicide has become the leading cause of death among young people (15–29) since 2019, surpassing traffic incidents, though both account for roughly 4 deaths per 100,000 young people.

The risk of severe depression among young people has more than doubled, from 3.4% in 2019 to 8.3% in 2023 — although this is not the highest rate on record.