Six in ten (60.4%) young Romanians aged between 15 and 29 lived in overcrowded spaces in 2025, the highest share in the European Union. By comparison, only 26.9% of young Europeans were in the same situation, according to Eurostat data published on Tuesday, September 29.
Romania was followed in the ranking by Latvia, where 54.9% of young people lived in overcrowded households, and Bulgaria, with a share of 52.8%. At the opposite end were Cyprus, with a rate of 3.5%, Ireland, with 7.4%, and Malta, with 7.7%.
At EU level, the overcrowding rate among young people was 10.1% higher than that recorded among the entire population: 26.9%, compared with 16.8%. In Romania, around 40% of the total population lived in overcrowded households.
Romania, Bulgaria and Greece are the only member states where the difference between the rate recorded among young people and that for the entire population reached at least 20%.
In Bulgaria, the percentages were 52.8% for young people and 32.5% for the total population, while in Greece they were 48.4% and 28.3%, respectively. In 2025, it was 30.1% for people aged between 15 and 19, 28.7% for those aged between 20 and 24, and 21.8% for the 25-29 age group.
The Eurostat indicator is not determined solely by the number of people living in a space, but also by the number of rooms available, the age of household members, and their relationship to one another.
A person was considered to be living in an overcrowded household if the dwelling does not have at least one room for the entire household, one room for each couple, and one room for every single person aged at least 18.
The methodology also provided for one room for each pair of young people of the same sex aged between 12 and 17, one room for each adolescent who does not fall into this category, and one room for each pair of children under the age of 12.
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