Back Overcrowded and under-occupied dwellings

12 June 2018

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In the European Union (EU), 16.6% of the population were living in overcrowded households in 2016, meaning they did not have the number of rooms appropriate to the size of the household.

On the other hand, more than one in three persons (34.8%) in the EU were living in under-occupied dwellings, meaning that the dwellings were deemed to be too large, in terms of excess rooms and more specifically bedrooms, for the needs of the occupant household.

 

Overcrowding rate highest in Romania, lowest in Cyprus

Across Member States, almost half the population in Romania (48.4%) were living in overcrowded households in 2016. This was also the case for around two in every five persons in Latvia (43.2%), Bulgaria (42.5%), Croatia (41.1%), Poland (40.7%), Hungary (40.4%) and Slovakia (37.9%), and for around one in four in Greece (28.7%), Italy (27.8%) and Lithuania (23.7%).

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest overcrowding rates were recorded in Cyprus (2.4%), Malta (2.9%), Ireland (3.2%), Belgium (3.7%), the Netherlands (4.0%) and Spain (5.4%). Overcrowding was also an issue for fewer than 10% of the population in Finland (6.6%), Germany (7.2%), France (7.7%), the United Kingdom (8.0%), Luxembourg (8.1%) and Denmark (8.2%).

Overcrowding rate

The source dataset can be found here.

 

A large majority of under-occupied dwellings in Ireland, Cyprus, Malta and Belgium

In 2016, over two-thirds of the population were living in under-occupied dwellings in Ireland (70.6%), Cyprus (69.6%), Malta (68.4%) and Belgium (67.0%). Under-occupancy was also the case for around half the population in Spain (55.7%), Luxembourg (54.1%), the United Kingdom (51.5%), the Netherlands (51.4%) and Finland (48.0%).

In contrast, fewer than 15% of the population were living in dwellings deemed to be too large in Romania (6.3%), Hungary (8.5%), Latvia (9.6%), Greece (10.2%), Croatia (10.4%), Bulgaria (10.5%), Slovakia (11.4%), Poland (14.2%) and Italy (14.9%).

Under-occupied dwellings

The source dataset can be found here.

 

For more information please contact us: estat-user-support@ec.europa.eu.