27% of EU young people lived in overcrowded homes in 2025 — Eurostat

Europe-Asia, International

BRUSSELS (NPA) — About 27 per cent of young people in the European Union (EU) lived in overcrowded households in 2025, highlighting continued housing pressures among young people across the bloc, according to Eurostat.

Eurostat said 26.9 per cent of young people aged 15–29 lived in overcrowded households in 2025, 10.1 percentage points higher than the rate for the total population, which stood at 16.8 per cent.

The overcrowding rate among young people decreased with age, falling from 30.1 per cent among those aged 15–19 to 28.7 per cent for those aged 20–24 and 21.8 per cent among those aged 25–29.

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Among young people aged 15–29, Romania recorded the highest overcrowding rate at 60.4 per cent, followed by Latvia at 54.9 per cent and Bulgaria at 52.8 per cent.

The lowest rates were recorded in Cyprus at 3.5 per cent, Ireland at 7.4 per cent and Malta at 7.7 per cent.

In three EU countries, the gap between the overcrowding rate among young people and the total population was at least 20 percentage points.

Bulgaria recorded a rate of 52.8 per cent among young people, compared with 32.5 per cent for the total population, while Greece recorded 48.4 per cent against 28.3 per cent.

In Romania, 60.4 per cent of young people lived in overcrowded households, compared with 40.4 per cent of the total population.

The figures underscore significant differences in housing conditions among young people across EU member states.