Number of Portuguese families in overcrowded homes increased the most ever | Housing

The number of people living in overcrowded homes increased last year, a phenomenon explained by the impact of inflation and rising housing costs in Portugal. And it is especially among Portuguese families with children that this phenomenon is getting worse: in 2023, one in five of these families lived in a house without enough rooms for the number of people in the household.

The data were released two weeks ago by the National Statistics Institute (INE), as part of the Living Conditions and Income Survey, which revealed that, in 2023, 12.9% of the population residing in Portugal lived in an overcrowded house, an indicator that is measured by the proportion of people living in accommodation in which the number of habitable rooms was insufficient for the number and demographic profile of household members. This percentage represents an increase of 3.5 percentage points compared to the previous year and is the highest since 2010, when the housing overcrowding rate was 14.6%.

Now, more details about this reality are known, advanced to the Express by INE. According to the weekly, the number of people living in this situation increased by 37% in 2023, totaling 1.3 million people that year. These data have been collected by INE since 2004 and, since then, there has never been such a sharp worsening from one year to the next.

Still according to the Express, the foreign population remained the one that lives in the worst conditions, with the overcrowding rate in this demographic group standing at 22.7% in 2023. This percentage is, even so, practically the same as in 2022, when the proportion of the foreign population living in overcrowded housing was 22.6%. Thus, it was mainly among Portuguese families that the greatest worsening was recorded: the overcrowding rate in this group went from 9.1% in 2022 to 12.6% in 2023.

Considering only Portuguese families with children, the worsening of this scenario becomes even more evident: between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of Portuguese families with children living in overcrowded housing increased from 16% to 21%. If the population in poverty is considered, the proportion increases to almost 30%, indicates the Express.