Crowded house: How much space do Irish homes have compared to EU?
Data from the European Commission's data analysis wing Eurostat show that in 2020, 17.5% of the EU population lived in overcrowded households.
Irish homes are among the least crowded in the EU, with plenty space for adults to work or children to play without being on top of each other.
Data from the European Commission's data analysis wing Eurostat show that in 2020, 17.5% of the EU population lived in overcrowded households.
Overcrowded, according to Eurostat's definition, means they did not have enough rooms in the home for the number of people in the household, their family situation and their ages.
Factors include one room for each single person aged 18 or more, one room per pair of single people of the same gender between 12 and 17, or one room per pair of children under 12.
"Lack of space in overcrowding households is amplified by having kids playing in the same room as parents trying to telework during the coronavirus lockdowns. Moreover, overcrowded environments can present a higher risk of spreading the virus," it said.
Most Irish households are in a vastly more comfortable situation compared to their EU counterparts, the data shows.
The lowest overcrowding rates in the bloc were recorded in Cyprus (2.5%), Ireland (3.2%), Malta (4.2%) and the Netherlands (4.8%), according to Eurostat.
In contrast, more than 45% of the population in Romania were living in overcrowded households in 2020, along with around two in five Latvians and Bulgarians, and about a third of Polish and Croatians.
Despite Irish people's perception that housing costs can be overwhelming at times, many EU citizens are feeling the squeeze far more, the data shows.
When it comes to so-called 'housing cost overburden rate', Ireland is in the lowest bracket of 5% or less — in contrast to the most domestically squeezed householders in Greece, where a third are overburdened with expenditure related to the home.
Housing cost overburden refers to the percentage of the population living in households which spend 40% or more of their disposable income on housing.
The average of people in such a position was 7.8% in the EU in 2020, with large differences between member states, Eurostat said.
"Rates below 5% were recorded in 13 member states, with the lowest shares 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 recorded in Denmark (14.1%) and Bulgaria (14.4%), with the highest rate recorded in Greece (33.3%)," it said.
