Press release No. 506 of 4 November 2021
- 10.3% of Germany's population lived in overcrowded dwellings in 2020
- 16.4% of minors were affected, but just 3.0% of the people aged 65 or over
- Above-average numbers of people living in cities, people living alone, lone parents and their children lived in dwellings with too few rooms
WIESBADEN – Activities outside the home were strongly limited for some periods in 2020 because of the measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic. This may have been particularly stressful for people living in dwellings that are considered as overcrowded by European definition. In Germany, just under 8.5 million people lived in such dwellings in 2020. Based on results of the EU-SILC (LEBEN IN EUROPA) household survey, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the overcrowding rate was 10.3%. A dwelling is regarded as overcrowded if the number of rooms is too small for the number of people living there. Since the EU-SILC survey was redesigned in 2020, year-on-year comparisons are not possible.
