One in every eight people in Portugal was living in an overcrowded house in 2023 (12.9%), where the number of rooms is insufficient for the number of people who inhabit it. This percentage had a increase compared to the previous year (9.4%), according to data released this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
“As in previous years, the risk of living in a situation of insufficient housing space was more significant for the population at risk of poverty: 27.7% of the population at risk of poverty was in a situation of housing overcrowding, which compares to 9.8% of the rest of the population”, indicates INE.
The worsening of this reality was transversal to the Continent and autonomous regions, but with greater intensity in the Azores and Madeira.
Overcrowding rate of houses in Portugal
In % of the total
INE data for 2023 also shows that 6% of residents lived in severe housing deprivation, a reality that also worsened compared to 2020 (3.9%). Among the conditions that define this reality is the lack of a bath or shower, having a ceiling that allows water to pass through or a lack of natural light on a sunny day.
“Severe deprivation of housing conditions in 2023 mainly affected the population at risk of poverty (14.8%), those under 18 years of age (10.7%) and residents in predominantly urban areas (7.7%)” , concludes INE.
On the other hand, In 2023, more than a fifth of the population (20.8%) lived in households without enough money to keep the house comfortably warm. And this is a more serious problem in Portugal than in many other European Union (EU) countries.
Looking at 2022 data, Portugal was one of the five EU countries with the highest percentage (17.5%) population living without the financial capacity to heat their home, twice the EU average (9.3%).
Tags: Housing conditions deteriorating people lives overcrowded house
