Finding suitable and affordable housing is becoming increasingly difficult for many people. This is especially true for those who need more space. In 2025, 11.7 per cent of Germany’s population lived in overcrowded homes, according to final results from the survey on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The overcrowding rate has risen continuously within five years: in 2020, 10.2 per cent of people in Germany had lived in homes with too few rooms for the number of occupants.
Foreign nationals aged 18 and over nearly five times as likely to live in overcrowded homes as German adults
Adults of foreign nationality are among the groups particularly affected by overcrowding. In 2025, the proportion of foreign nationals aged 18 and over living in overcrowded homes was 30.8 per cent, nearly five times as high as among German nationals aged 18 and over (6.7 %). People at risk of poverty (27.4 %) are another particularly affected group.
Households with children affected more often
At 17.6 per cent, people living in households with children were affected at an above-average rate in 2025. People in households without children were below the average of 11.7 per cent, at 7.2 per cent.
Among households with children, two adults with at least three children (32.1 %) and single parents and their children (29.6 %) were among those most severely affected by cramped housing conditions.
Among households without children, two-adult households had the smallest proportion living in overcrowded homes in 2025, at 3.3 per cent. The rate was significantly higher among people living alone, at 12.6 per cent. Under the EU-SILC definition, a one-person household’s home is considered overcrowded if it does not have at least two rooms, such as a separate living room and bedroom.
Looking at the population by age also shows that the shortage of living space often affects children and young people. Among minors, the proportion living in homes with too few rooms was 19.0 per cent in 2025. Older people aged 65 and over were the least likely to be affected by overcrowding, at 3.1 per cent.
In cities, 16.9 % of people lived in overcrowded homes in 2025
The overcrowding rates for 2025 also make clear that housing is particularly scarce in cities. The proportion of people in overcrowded homes was significantly higher in larger cities (16.9 %) than in suburbs and smaller towns (9.6 %), and three times as high as in rural areas (5.5 %).
EU average overcrowding rate higher than Germany’s
According to the EU statistical office Eurostat, the average overcrowding rate across the EU was 16.8 % in 2025, higher than in Germany (11.7 %). Romania (40.4 %) and Latvia (38.9 %) had the largest proportions of people living in overcrowded homes, while Cyprus (2.2 %) and the Netherlands (4.1 %) had the smallest.
Methodological notes:
Under the EU-SILC definition, a home is considered overcrowded if at least one of the following rooms is not available:
- one communal room,
- one room for each couple living in the household,
- one room for each additional person aged 18 or over,
- one room for every two children under 12,
- one room for every two children of the same sex aged between 12 and 17,
- one room for each child aged between 12 and 17 if they are of different sexes,
- a second room for a one-person household.
The overcrowding figures are results from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which has been integrated into the German microcensus as a subsample since 2020. EU-SILC is the main official data source for measuring the risk of poverty and living conditions in Germany and the member states of the European Union.
To shorten the period between the end of the survey year and publication of the results, preliminary results and later final results have been published since the 2020 survey year. The 2025 results referred to here are final results.