Bulgaria ranks third in the European Union for the share of people living in overcrowded homes, Eurostat said today. Among 15 to 29-year-olds, the figure is 52.8%, also the third-highest in the EU.
A home counts as overcrowded when it doesn't have enough rooms for the number and ages of the people living there, the EU's statistics agency explains.
In 2025, 16.8% of people in the EU lived in overcrowded homes, down slightly from 16.9% the year before.
Among young people in the EU, the share was 26.9% in 2025, up 0.4 percentage points from 2024. That's 10.1 percentage points higher than the rate for the EU population as a whole.
In Bulgaria, 32.5% of all people live in overcrowded homes, down from 33.8% a year earlier. The rate among young people also dropped slightly, from 53.2% to 52.8%.
The gap between young people and the rest of the population in Bulgaria is 20.3 percentage points. Only three EU countries have a gap of 20 points or more, and Bulgaria is one of them.
Romania has the highest rate: 40.4% of the whole population and 60.4% of young people. Latvia is second, at 38.9% overall and 54.9% among young people. In Greece, 48.4% of young people live in overcrowded homes, against 28.3% for the population as a whole.
Cyprus has the fewest young people in overcrowded homes, at 3.5%, followed by Ireland with 7.4% and Malta with 7.7%.