In 2017, the proportion of non-EU citizens in the European Union (EU) living in overcrowded households was estimated to be 34.6 %. This was almost 18 percentage points higher than the overcrowding rates for national citizens (16.7 %) and foreign EU citizens (16.8 %).

The source dataset is here.

Among EU Member States, the overcrowding rate recorded for non-EU citizens (based on available data) was highest in Croatia (67.6 %), followed by Bulgaria (67.2 %), Poland (61.0 %), Greece (55.6 %) and Italy (52.5 %). The lowest rates were observed in Malta (9.4 %) and Cyprus (7.1 %).

For foreign EU citizens (i.e. EU citizens residing in another EU country), the overcrowding rate was highest in Hungary (51.6 %), Latvia (42.8 %) and Italy (42.5 %). The Netherlands (4.6 %), Cyprus (4.0 %), Ireland (3.9 %) and Malta (0.9 %) recorded the lowest rates.

The highest overcrowding rates for national citizens were recorded in Romania (47.8 %), Bulgaria (43.5 %), Croatia (41.4 %), Latvia (40.7 %) and Hungary (40.1 %), while the lowest were in Cyprus (2.5 %), Malta (2.4 %) and Ireland (2.1 %).

How is the overcrowding rate defined?

The overcrowding rate is the percentage of the population living in an overcrowded household. A person is considered as living in an overcrowded household if the household does not have at its disposal a minimum number of rooms equal to the sum of:

one room for the household;

one room per couple in the household;

one room per single person aged 18 and more;

one room per pair of single people of the same gender between 12 and 17 years of age;

one room per single person between 12 and 17 years of age and not included in the previous category;

one room per pair of children under 12 years of age.

Further information is provided in the Statistics Explained article Migrant integration statistics - housing.

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