Housing conditions in the EU still a big challenge
Eurostat releases updated statistics
Brussels, 17 December 2015 | Published in Research
Eurostat has recently released new statistics on housing conditions in 2014. Findings from data show the picture has not changed much from previous years, with some challenges still very relevant at the EU and national level.
In the European Union (EU), more than half (59.3%) of the population were living in houses and 40.0% in flats in 2014. The highest share of the population living in houses was in the United Kingdom and Croatia, and the lowest in Spain and Latvia.
7 persons out of 10 in the EU live in a dwelling they own. The proportion of owners was highest in Romania, lowest in Germany and Austria.
11.4% of the EU population were confronted in 2014 with housing cost overburden, meaning that they had to spend more than 40% of their disposable income for their accommodation. The recorded housing cost overburden rate was highest in Greece, lowest in Malta
For the quality of housing conditions, a major element is the availability of sufficient space in the dwelling. In 2014, the overcrowding rate stood at 17.1% in the EU. The country with the highest overcrowding rate was the Romania, while Belgium had the lowest rate.
Overall, with an average score of 7.5 on a scale from 0 to 10, satisfaction with accommodation was the second best rated domain by the EU population aged 16 and over, behind satisfaction with personal relationships. Highest satisfaction with accommodation was reported in Finland, lowest in Bulgaria.