Eurostat: Households in Romania, most overcrowded in EU

In the 27 member states of the European Union, 17.2pct of the population lived last year in overcrowded households, that is the number of rooms was insufficient compared to that of household members, with Romania ranking first, with almost half of the population (45.8pct), show the data published on Tuesday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).

Other EU member states in a similar situation, with two out of five people living in overcrowded households in 2019, are Latvia (42.2pct), Bulgaria (41.1pct), Croatia (38.5pct) and Poland (37.6pct). On the other hand, the Member States with the lowest overcrowding rates are Cyprus (2.2pct), Ireland (3.2pct), Malta (3.7pct) and the Netherlands (4.8pct).

Also last year, almost three-quarters of the population lived in underoccupied dwellings (houses considered too large for the needs of those living in those households) in Malta (72.6pct), Cyprus (both with 70.5pct) and Ireland (69.6pct).

Other member states where more than half of the population lives in occupied housing are Spain (55.4pct), Luxembourg (54pct), Belgium (53.9pct) and the Netherlands (53.4pct).

In contrast, less than 15pct of the population lived in occupied housing in Romania (7.7pct), Latvia (9.6pct), Greece (10.7pct), Bulgaria (11.5pct), Croatia (12pct), Slovakia (14pct) and Italy (14.2pct).

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