Romania has the EU’s highest rate of housing overcrowding among young people

Six in ten young people aged 15 to 29 in Romania lived in 2025 in households considered overcrowded, the highest proportion in the European Union. The EU average was 26.9%, while young people were more exposed to overcrowding than the general population in all Member States.

Romania recorded the highest rate of housing overcrowding among young people in the European Union in 2025. Eurostat data show that 60.4% of people aged between 15 and 29 lived in households considered overcrowded, compared with a European average of 26.9%. The difference is also significant within Romania, where the rate for the entire population was 40.4%, 20 percentage points below that observed among young people.

In brief

In 2025, 60.4% of young people aged 15–29 in Romania lived in overcrowded households, the highest proportion in the EU.

The European average for this age group was 26.9%, compared with 16.8% for the total population.

After Romania, the highest rates were recorded in Latvia, at 54.9%, and Bulgaria, at 52.8%.

The lowest figures were recorded in Cyprus, at 3.5%, Ireland, at 7.4%, and Malta, at 7.7%.

At EU level, overcrowding decreases as young people get older, from 30.1% for the 15–19 age group to 21.8% for those aged between 25 and 29.

Across the Union, 26.9% of people aged between 15 and 29 lived in 2025 in an overcrowded household. The proportion was 10.1 percentage points higher than the rate of 16.8% recorded for the total population, showing that the problem of housing space disproportionately affects younger generations. Eurostat shows that in every Member State the overcrowding rate was higher for young people than for the population as a whole.

However, the situation differs greatly between countries. Romania is at the top of the ranking, with 60.4% of young people living in overcrowded homes, followed by Latvia at 54.9% and Bulgaria at 52.8%. At the other end are Cyprus, where the rate is 3.5%, Ireland at 7.4%, and Malta at 7.7%; the differences point to very different patterns of housing, household structures, and access to living space within the Union.

Romania also stands out because of the gap between the situation of young people and that of the population as a whole. The national overcrowding rate was 40.4% in 2025, compared with 60.4% for the 15–29 age group. Differences of at least 20 percentage points between young people and the total population were also recorded in Bulgaria, where the figures were 52.8% and 32.5%, and in Greece, with 48.4% for young people and 28.3% for the total population.

The new data also indicate an increase compared with the previous year. In 2024, the overcrowding rate among young people in Romania had been 58.3%, meaning an increase of 2.1 percentage points in one year. At EU level, the change was smaller, from 26.5% in 2024 to 26.9% in 2025.

Age matters significantly in how the problem is distributed. Across the EU, 30.1% of young people aged between 15 and 19 lived in overcrowded conditions, while the proportion remained high, at 28.7%, for the 20–24 age group. For people aged between 25 and 29, the rate fell to 21.8%, showing a decrease as some young people change their housing situation.

The Eurostat indicator does not simply measure the number of people living in a household, nor does it automatically classify large families as overcrowded. The calculation takes into account the number of available rooms and the composition of the household, including the age, sex, and relationships between the people living together.

For a household not to be classified as overcrowded, the methodology requires at least one room for the household, one room for each couple, and one room for each single person aged at least 18. Distinct rules apply to adolescents aged between 12 and 17 depending on sex and the possibility of sharing a room, while for children under 12, one room is provided for each pair of children.

The indicator therefore describes the space available in relation to the household’s needs and should not automatically be interpreted as a measure of poverty. A person may live in a household classified as overcrowded without it being below the poverty threshold, just as a household that is not overcrowded may face serious difficulties in covering housing costs.

Eurostat separately measures the financial pressure caused by housing costs. In 2025, 9.1% of young people in the EU lived in households where housing costs represented at least 40% of disposable income, compared with 7.7% for the total population. The two statistics describe different problems, one concerning the space actually available and the other the financial burden of housing.

The data on Romania therefore show particularly high housing vulnerability for the 15–29 generation, without the statistics alone indicating its causes. Eurostat measures the outcome in terms of available space, but in this publication it does not attribute differences between countries to factors such as housing prices, incomes, housing supply, the age at which young people leave their parents’ home, or family structures. Additional datasets are needed for such explanations.

https://2eu.brussels/ro/news/romania-are-cea-mai-mare-rata-din-ue-a-supraaglomerarii-locuintelor-in-randul-tinerilor