More than 67 per cent of Italians aged between 18 and 34 were living at home with their parents in 2015, up from 65.4 per cent the previous year, according to figures from Eurostat.

The number of young Italians at home, who are also dubbed “bamboccioni” or “big babies”, is well above the European average of 47.9 per cent.

The figure is even higher among young men, with nearly three in four unwilling to leave home despite 40 per cent of them having a full-time job.

“It is true that the family is being identified more as the place of security par excellence,” Vittorino Andreoli, a leading Italian psychiatrist and author, told Italian daily Corriere Della Sera.