Law in Charts · Housing and the home

People for whom housing costs are a heavy burden, over time

How has the share of people spending over 40 per cent of income on housing moved in nine European countries?

% of the population in households spending over 40% of income on housing

Source: Eurostat, Housing cost overburden rate by age, sex and poverty status (ilc_lvho07a). Data for 2010 to 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

Germany: 14.5% in 2010, 11.2% in 2025.
France: 5.1% in 2010, 6.4% in 2025.
Spain: 9.7% in 2010, 7.2% in 2025.
Italy: 7.7% in 2010, 5.0% in 2025.
Poland: 9.1% in 2010, 4.1% in 2025.
Sweden: 7.8% in 2010, 10.8% in 2025.
Bulgaria: 5.9% in 2010, 6.9% in 2025.
Romania: 15.8% in 2010, 5.0% in 2025.
Ireland: 4.9% in 2010, 5.3% in 2025.

The countries shown are a selection of European countries with long data series, chosen for coverage and not for any result.

What it counts

People in households where total housing costs (after allowances) are more than 40 per cent of disposable income, as a share of the population.

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

Rents, prices, interest rates, wages and housing law all play a part, so a line shows that something changed but not what caused it.

Source

Eurostat: Housing cost overburden rate by age, sex and poverty status (ilc_lvho07a). Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). People for whom housing costs are a heavy burden, over time [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/housing-cost-overburden-trend. Data: Eurostat, Housing cost overburden rate by age, sex and poverty status (ilc_lvho07a), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvho07a/default/table (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/housing-cost-overburden-trend). Data: Eurostat.

BibTeX

@misc{housingcostoverburdentrend2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {People for whom housing costs are a heavy burden, over time},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/housing-cost-overburden-trend},
  note = {Data: Eurostat, Housing cost overburden rate by age, sex and poverty status (ilc_lvho07a), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvho07a/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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Course: Property Law

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