Almost two thirds of young Romanians live in overcrowded households, the highest share in EU

Almost two thirds (65.1%) of the young people in Romania aged 15-29 were living in overcrowded households in 2017, this being the highest share in the European Union (EU). The percentage is also way above the EU average of 26.7%, according to data from the European statistical office Eurostat. On the other hand, the lowest share of young people living in overcrowded households was reported in Malta – 4%. A total of ten EU Member States had an overcrowding rate for young people in 2017 that was higher than the EU average, according to the same Eurostat data. In fact, seven EU countries, namely Slovakia, Latvia, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania reported that more than half of their young population lived in overcrowded households. Eurostat also said that the 26.7% proportion of young people in the EU aged 15-29 living in overcrowded households is just over 9 percentage points higher than the overcrowding rate for the population as a whole (17.5 %). The largest difference in percentage points between the overcrowding rate for the 15-29 year age group and the population as a whole was observed in Bulgaria - almost 20 percentage points higher for young people. 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, and one room per pair of children under 12 years of age. Romania, second highest share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in EU Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com (photo source: Pexels.com)