The European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey in 2023 reported that 2.4 per cent of persons in private households lived in overcrowded dwellings, the NSO said in a statement Monday.

EU-SILC is an annual panel survey that collects information on the income and living conditions of private households in Malta and Gozo. In 2023, a total of 4,515 households were interviewed.

In 2023, 64.9 per cent of all inhabited dwellings in Malta and Gozo were either apartments or maisonettes, while 30.8 per cent were semi-detached or terraced houses. Results show that the largest proportion of main dwellings (36.4 per cent) contained five rooms (refer to methodological note 5a). This was followed by 20.6 per cent of main dwellings which were composed of four rooms, and a further 20.5 per cent had six rooms.

Home ownership was the most common type of tenure status in 2023, with 72.1 per cent of all households owning their main dwelling. Of these, 50.0 per cent were outright owners, meaning that they either never had a mortgage on their main dwelling or have repaid their debt in full. A higher share of homeowners was registered among households with dependent children, which stood at 77.0 per cent, as opposed to households without dependent children, whose share was 70.4 per cent. A different trend was observed among rented main dwellings, whereby 25.3 per cent of households without dependent children were tenants. On the other hand, 20.4 per cent of households renting their main dwelling had dependent children.

According to EU-SILC, during 2023, 2.4 per cent of all those living in private households lived in overcrowded households. The overcrowding rate is defined by the number of rooms available in the household in relation to the household's size and other demographics.

Housing costs were perceived to constitute a slight burden for 53.6 per cent of all persons living in households. A further 24.9 per cent considered these costs to be a heavy burden, while for the remaining 21.5 per cent, they were of no burden at all. Furthermore, 72.5 per cent of persons who were severely materially and socially deprived, considered housing costs to be a heavy burden. In contrast, only 31.6 per cent of people who were at-risk-of-poverty considered housing costs to be a heavy burden.

As reported by 34.7 per cent of respondents, the most common housing issues were considered to be pollution, grime, or other environmental problems. Noise from neighbours or from the street, was the second most mentioned problem as experienced by a further 31.3 per cent of the surveyed households.