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One in six live in over- crowded homes in Europe

23 February 2011, 20:11 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - One in six people live in overcrowded homes in Europe, with many living without indoor flushing toilets or showers in former Communist states, EU figures showed on Wednesday.

Living conditions vary widely in the 27-nation European Union: one percent of the population of Cyprus lives in packed homes compared to 3.7 percent in Ireland, 7.2 percent in Britain and 23.3 percent in Italy.

The rates are the highest among former Communist bloc nations, from 47 percent in Bulgaria to 55.3 percent in Romania and an EU-leading 57.7 percent in Latvia, according to the Eurostat data agency, citing 2009 figures.

Overall, nearly 16 percent of people in Europe live under leaking roofs or homes with dampness in the walls, floors or foundation or rot in window frames or floors.

The sanitary conditions among EU states are also vastly different.

Some 43 percent of Romanians, 26 percent of Bulgarians and 17 percent of Lithuanians and Latvians live in homes with no indoor flushing toilets, compared to less then one percent in 15 other EU states.

Less than one percent of people in 17 EU nations lived in homes with no baths or showers, compared to 41 percent in Romania, 18 percent in Latvia and 16 percent in Lithuania and Bulgaria.

Eurostat considers a person as living in an overcrowded home if the household does not contain one room per individual or, in the case of a couple, one room per couple.

Under the EU criteria, each girl and boy aged 12 or older should also have her or his own room, but a pair of children of the same sex can share one room.

One person in six lives in an overcrowded dwelling [Eurostat]


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