17.06.2022
According to data released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, Cyprus has recorded the lowest level of congestion in terms of housing costs, as well as the lowest percentage of overcrowded households in the European Union in 2020.
The housing cost congestion rate refers to the percentage of the population living in households that spend 40% or more of their disposable income on housing.
In 2020, the housing cost congestion rate in the EU was 7.8%, with large differences between member states.
Rates below 5% were registered in 13 Member States, with the lowest rates in Cyprus (1.9%), Lithuania (2.7%), Malta (2.8%) and Slovakia (3.2%).
At the other end of the scale, rates above 10% were registered in Denmark (14.1%) and Bulgaria (14.4%), while the highest level was recorded in Greece (33.3%).
In terms of living conditions , Eurostat data show that in 2020, 17.5% of the EU population lived in overcrowded households, meaning they did not have enough rooms for the number of people in the household, their marital status and age.
The lack of space in overcrowded households is exacerbated by children playing in the same room as parents trying to work remotely during the coronavirus lockdown. In addition, overcrowding may pose a higher risk of spreading the virus, according to a press release from Eurostat.
The lowest overcrowding rates were recorded in Cyprus (2.5%), Ireland (3.2%), Malta (4.2%) and the Netherlands (4.8%).
In 2020, almost half of the Romanian population (45.1%) lived in overcrowded households. The same applies to about two out of every five people in Latvia (42.5%), Bulgaria (39.5%), Poland (36.9%) and Croatia. (36.2%).
