Disability statistics - housing conditions

Data extracted in: June 2025.

Planned article update: June 2026.

Highlights

In 2024, 66.5% of people in the EU aged 16 years or over with a disability lived in a household that owned their own home, while 33.5% lived in rented accommodation.

In 2024, the housing cost overburden rate for people in the EU aged 16 years or over with a disability was 10.4%, ranging from 2.0% in Cyprus to 21.2% in Denmark and 33.0% in Greece.

Housing cost overburden rate for people aged 16 years or over, by level of disability (activity limitation), 2024

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This article presents various aspects of the housing conditions faced by people with a disability (activity limitation). The data come from the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) and relate to the 2024 reference year; they cover people aged 16 years or over.

This article is one of a set of articles on disability which forms part of the online publication Disability statistics.

Tenure status

In the EU as a whole, there was no major difference between people with or without a disability in terms of home ownership, but people with a disability were much less likely to have an outstanding loan or mortgage

In 2024, 66.5% of people aged 16 years or over with a disability (some or severe activity limitation) in the EU lived in a household that owned their own home – see Table 1. Among people with a disability, 15.4% were owners who still had a mortgage or loan to pay off and 51.1% had no outstanding mortgage or housing loan. For comparison, 70.0% of people aged 16 years or over with no disability lived in a household that owned their own home, 3.5 percentage points higher than the share for people with a disability. Among people with no disability, 23.7% still had a mortgage or loan to pay off, 8.3 pp higher than the share for people with a disability. Therefore, the share of people with no disability who had no outstanding mortgage (46.3%) was lower than the share for people with a disability. At least in part, these differences may reflect different age structures of the subpopulations of people with or without a disability which in turn impacts on the likelihood that people are at a stage of their lives when they have paid off any mortgages or house loans.

Table 1: Distribution of people aged 16 years or over, by tenure status and by level of disability (activity limitation), 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_dhc010)

Therefore, 33.5% of people with a disability in the EU lived in rented accommodation in 2024: 20.4% paid rent at the market rate and the remaining 13.1% paid a reduced rent or no rent at all. For people without a disability, 30.0% lived in rented accommodation: 20.9% paid rent at the market rate and 9.1% paid a reduced rent or no rent.

the share of people without a disability paying a market price rent was 0.5 pp higher than the equivalent share for people with a disability
the share of people with a disability paying a reduced rent or no rent at all was 4.0 pp higher than the equivalent share for people without a disability

With 2 exceptions – Germany and Austria – the EU countries generally reported that over half of all people with a disability lived in owner-occupied dwellings in 2024 – see Table 1.

In 15 EU countries, the share of people living in owner-occupied dwellings was lower in 2024 among people with a disability than it was among people without a disability. The largest difference was in Sweden (where 53.2% of people with a disability lived in owner-occupied dwellings, 14.1 pp lower than the equivalent share among people without a disability); shares more than 10.0 pp lower among people with a disability were also observed in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Accommodation quality

People with a disability more often living in sub-standard accommodation

Across the EU, people with a disability were more likely to experience problems associated with housing deprivation – see Figure 1.

For 3 types of surveyed issues related to the area where people live, the issues were more common in 2023 among people with a disability.

22.5% of people with a disability reported noise from neighbours or from the street, compared with 16.9% of those without a disability
15.0% of people with a disability reported pollution, grime or other environmental problems in the area where they lived, compared with 11.2% among people without a disability
13.0% of people with a disability were aware of crime, violence or vandalism in the area where they lived, compared with 9.1% among people without a disability

Equally, all 3 issues related to the accommodation itself were more common among people with a disability.

18.9% of people with a disability said they had a leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundation, or rot in the window frames or floor in their home in 2023; among people without a disability the share was 13.8%
13.2% of people with a disability reported that they were unable to keep their home adequately warm in 2024, compared with 8.0% among people without a disability
8.3% of people with a disability complained of living in a dwelling considered too dark in 2023, compared with 6.1% among people without a disability

Figure 1: Share of people aged 16 years or over affected by sub-standard accommodation conditions, by level of disability (activity limitation), EU, 2023 or 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_dhc070), (hlth_dhc100), (hlth_dhc110), (hlth_dhc120), (hlth_dhc130) and (hlth_dhc140)

Overcrowding

People aged 16 years or over with a disability were less likely to live in an overcrowded household

Another indicator of housing quality is the number of people living in the same dwelling. The overcrowding rate is defined as the share of people living in an overcrowded household.

Figure 2: Overcrowding rate for people aged 16 years or over, by level of disability (activity limitation), 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_dhc040)

In the EU, the overcrowding rate in 2024 was lower for people with a disability than it was for people without a disability, the shares being 11.0% and 16.1%, respectively – see Figure 2. This situation was also observed in 25 of the EU countries. The largest difference was recorded in Romania, where 23.1% of people with a disability experienced overcrowding, 16.7 pp lower than the share among people without a disability (39.8%). There were 2 EU countries – Sweden and Finland – where the overcrowding rate was higher for people with a disability; in both cases, the differences in the rates for people with or without a disability were small, 1.9 and 1.1 pp, respectively.

Among the EU countries, the overcrowding rate in 2024 for people with a disability ranged from 1.3% in Malta, 1.7% in Cyprus, 2.2% in Ireland and 2.8% in the Netherlands to 30.1% in Poland and 34.2% in Latvia.

People aged 65 years or over with a disability more likely to experience overcrowding

A different pattern was observed among people aged 65 years or over – see Figure 3. In 2024, the overcrowding rate in the EU was higher for people with a disability (6.9%) than for people without a disability (5.4%).

This situation was also observed in 24 of the EU countries. The largest difference was recorded in Latvia, where 27.0% of people aged 65 years or over with a disability experienced overcrowding, 8.8 pp higher than the share among people aged 65 years or over without a disability (18.2%). In Italy, there was no difference in the overcrowding rate for people aged 65 years or more between those with or without a disability. In the 2 EU countries – Croatia and Malta – where the overcrowding rate was lower for people aged 65 years or over with a disability, the differences in the rates for people aged 65 years or over with or without a disability were small, 0.3 and 0.1 pp, respectively.

In 2024, the overcrowding rate for people aged 65 years or over with a disability ranged in the EU countries from 0.0% in Malta to 22.8% in Poland and 27.0% in Latvia.

Figure 3: Overcrowding rate for people aged 65 years or over, by level of disability (activity limitation), 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_dhc040)

Housing costs

People with a disability more likely to be overburdened by housing costs

Housing costs as a share of disposable income indicate people’s ability to afford the costs associated with their housing. Households with a higher income may find it easier to cope with a high share of housing costs in relation to their disposable income. Nevertheless, if housing costs are greater than or equal to 40% of disposable income, this is deemed an overburden: the share of people whose housing costs meet this criterion is referred to as the housing cost overburden rate.

Figure 4: Housing cost overburden rate for people aged 16 years or over, by level of disability (activity limitation), 2024
Source: Eurostat (hlth_dhc060)

In the EU, the housing cost overburden rate was 10.4% in 2024 for people aged 16 years or over with a disability compared with 7.8% for people without a disability. In 21 EU countries, the housing cost overburden rate was higher among people with a disability than for people without a disability – see Figure 4. The widest gaps were recorded in Sweden (7.5 pp), Denmark (6.6 pp) and Belgium (6.3 pp).

Among the EU countries, the housing cost overburden rate for people with a disability ranged in 2024 from 2.0% in Cyprus and 3.0% in Ireland to 21.2% in Denmark and 33.0% in Greece.

Source data for tables and graphs

Disability statistics – housing conditions: tables and figures

Data sources

EU-SILC is the source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social inclusion in the EU. It provides annual data for the EU countries as well as most EFTA and enlargement countries on income, poverty, social exclusion and other aspects of living conditions.

The reference population for EU-SILC is limited to private households and their current members residing in the territory of the surveying country at the time of data collection. People living in collective households and institutions are generally excluded from the reference population; this constitutes a limitation for disability statistics. All household members are surveyed, but only those aged 16 years or over are interviewed.

The source is documented in more detail in this background article, which provides information on the scope of the data, its legal basis, the methodology employed, as well as related concepts and definitions.

In EU-SILC, disability is approximated according to the concept of global activity limitation, which is defined as a limitation – because of health problems – in carrying out usual activities (for at least the previous 6 months). This is considered to be an adequate proxy for disability, both by the scientific community and organisations representing people with disabilities. This definition is also in line with the concept of disability as set out in the European disability strategy 2010–2020 and its successor, the Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021–2030.

Context

Disability statistics are used to measure the impact and effectiveness of EU policy aimed at ensuring equal rights for people with disabilities. The EU has adopted several strategies aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities

by reducing discrimination and inequalities
by providing support to enjoy fully their human rights, fundamental freedoms and EU rights on an equal basis with others.

In light of this, the 2021-2030 EU Strategy for the rights of people with disabilities sets EU objectives and priority actions in several areas, such as accessibility, citizens’ rights, the quality of life, equal access and non-discrimination, and the promotion of the rights of people with disabilities. To find out more, please visit the webpage on the monitoring framework for the objectives and actions of this strategy.

To ensure sound monitoring and reporting of this topic, the European Commission is reinforcing the collection of data on the situation of people with disabilities in areas where knowledge gaps have been identified, for example in relation to access to the labour market.

The EU is also a signatory of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Housing policy in EU countries is a national policy, rather than an EU policy.

Explore further

Database

Disability (dsb), see

Income and living conditions (dsb_ilc)

Housing conditions (dsb_ilchc)

Living environment (dsb_ilcle)

Thematic section

Publications

Visualisation

Ageing Europe – 2021 interactive edition

Methodology

Legislation

Legal framework from 2021: EU statistics on income and living conditions

External links

Health

Housing

Disability