How crammed do we live? And what are the countries with the most generous housing as an area

When Andrei was admitted to the college Taman in Canada, the parents breathed in relief and not necessarily for his success, but because he released from the tight space of the apartment. Andrei lived with his parents and his grandmother for almost 90 years in a 3-room apartment. The grandmother had her room, Andrei had his own, and the parents shared a bedroom in offices for both. Andrei's family is one of the Eurostat to when he talks about how crowded the Romanians live.

What generates this overcrowding?

First of all, the difficulties of young people to live in their own home due to the lack of housing options, together with their economic dependence on the older members of the family. About half of the country's population lives in overcrowded houses, Romania being the European country with the highest percentage of overcrowding, three times higher than the EU-27 average.

Graphic source: https://worldpopulationReview.com/country-rankings/house-size-by-country

The lack of living space is acute for households in the category of low incomes and is generally attributed to more numerous families, being associated with deficient access to subsidized public housing, the report quoted.

Massive overcrowding often demands excessive installations of the block that are not technically designed to serve such a large number of users, so that other troubles appear. As most installations are old and defective, the basements of these blocks are usually flooded and dirty. The roof and walls are damaged and with grease, which represents a risk to the health of those living in the building. Some of these areas with social housing risk becoming – or have already become – “islands” of poverty and unemployment (called “ghettos”, locally).

Along with the overcrowding indicator, the surface of the house can provide an image on the quality of living, regarding the existence of a sufficient useful space at the level of the houses, shows a report of the Ministry of Development.

The average surface of a home in EU 28 was 102.3m.p. The average useful area of ​​a home varies from 46.9 square meters in Romania, to 156.4m.P. in Cyprus.

During the communist regime, the decisions regarding the location of the housing constructions were taken by the central management bodies. The new homes were usually built around an existing historical center (if such a center existed), in concentric rings with higher densities recorded with the movement to the outskirts of the city.

The average number of rooms per housing in Romania is 2-3, well below the average number of rooms per housing in other European countries. The average number of people on the living room is higher in cities than in rural areas in all income decks. These values ​​are significantly higher for low -income households.

“I caught a 56 m apartment2 at the first house. He has two rooms, and the bedroom is really big. ”

When a Romanian buys a home, the appreciation of what “big” means is often distorted from that of other Europeans. The 3 -room apartments, for example, are often perceived as big, especially by young buyers, shows a research of the think tank Rethink Romania. One of 4 rooms, which can be found with weight, is almost always considered large, a kind of house at the block.

In many newly built residential complexes, most of the new homes have at most 3 rooms, at least in the city, being relatively common that 70-80% of the housing sold to be 1-2 rooms. For example, in the last 5 years for which we have final data (2017-2021), no less than 91.2% of the houses built in Bucharest had at most 3 rooms, a very large weight. 67.2% had either one or two rooms, the suitable configurations especially for single people or couples without children.

The small home has become normalized, both discursive and in the collective imaginary.

It seems normal for a 2 -room apartment to be the standard on the market. Just as the new neighborhoods were normalized in which the only facility offered are car parking. Romania already has a substantive problem regarding the size of the housing, namely overcrowding. I wrote above that a two -room apartment is suitable for a single person or a couple without children, but almost everyone knows people who have grown, along with parents, fixed in two -room apartments. This does not mean that such conditions are normal. Three people living in two rooms form an overcrowded housing

Almost half of the families (46%) live in one or two rooms. In cities, the percentage reaches even 57%. The figures become more dramatic when we look at the size of the families. I live in a maximum of two rooms, two out of five families with 3 people, one third of families with 4 people, and one in 5 families with 5 and 6 people, according to IRSOP market studies.

We stop a moment and try to imagine the daily life of a family of 4 or 6 people in a 2-room apartment: how do these people rest?

“We stop a moment and try to imagine the daily life of a family of 4 or 6 people in a 2-room apartment: how do these people rest? How do they eat? What possibilities of privacy are there? Where do they keep their things? To concern no one, apart from the tenants concerned ”, said at the time of such a study Petre Dăculescu, the director of IRSOP.

All living beings suffer when their life space is overcrowded. When they live crammed, the animals reproduce more slowly, do not care for their chicks and become vulnerable to the conditions. Studies have found that people crammed into overcrowded spaces have lower intellectual performances, become more socially withdrawn and less tolerant in human relations. IRSOP researches on this topic show that people who come from numerous families crowded in narrow spaces report an increase in irritability, frustration, feeling of constraint and the feeling that they have no control over their own lives, says Datcuculescu.
“We stop a moment and try to imagine the daily life of a family of 4 or 6 people in a 2-room apartment: how do these people rest? How do they eat? What possibilities of privacy are there? Where do they keep their things? To concern no one, apart from the tenants concerned ”, said at the time of such a study Petre Dăculescu, the director of IRSOP.

All living beings suffer when their life space is overcrowded. When they live crammed, the animals reproduce more slowly, do not care for their chicks and become vulnerable to the conditions. Studies have found that people crammed into overcrowded spaces have lower intellectual performances, become more socially withdrawn and less tolerant in human relations. IRSOP researches on this topic show that people who come from numerous families crowded in narrow spaces report an increase in irritability, frustration, feeling of constraint and the feeling that they have no control over their own lives, says Datcuculescu.
But, the worst effect of housing overcrowding is the installation of resignation. People are discouraging and getting used to the idea that they will not be able to overcome the discomfort in which they live. This psychological effect is called “Learned Helplessness) and occurs when people realize that there is no escape, because their own forces are insufficient, and external help is absent. Cruised families do not need compassion, but help, which translate into access to financing, by government policies and strategies to improve housing and especially by public awareness of the risks of crammed life, says Petre Dăculescu.