(ANSA) - BRUSSELS - In 2014, 1 out of 2 persons were living in overcrowded households in Romania (52.3% of the population), meaning they had a lack of space given the size of the household. According to Eurostat, Hungary (44.6%), Poland (44.2%), Bulgaria (43.3%), Croatia (42.1%), Latvia (39.8%) and Slovakia (38.6%) also registered high shares of the population living in overcrowded households, against an average of 17.1% in the EU.

Regarding tenure status, the highest shares of the population owning their dwelling were also registered in Romania (with 96.1% of owners), followed by Slovakia (90.3%) Lithuania (89.9%), Croatia (89.7%) and Hungary (89.1%), while less than two-thirds of the population owned their dwelling in Germany (52.5%) and Austria (57.2%), followed by Denmark (63.3%), the United Kingdom (64.8%) and France (65.1%). In a majority of Member States, the largest part of the population are living in houses.

Flats in 2014 were the main dwelling type notably in Spain (where 66.5% of the population were living in flats), Latvia (65.1%), Lithuania (58.4%) and Greece (56.9%).

Last year the housing cost overburden was by far the highest in Greece, where 40.7% of the population was living in a household where total housing costs represented more than 40% of total disposable household income. It was followed at a distance by Germany (15.9%), Denmark (15.6%), the Netherlands (15.4%) and Romania (14.9%). (ANSA)