In 2020, 25.2 percent of the population lived in houses with roofs letting water in, or with rotten floors and window frames.

Portugal is the 2nd country in the European Union (EU) with the highest percentage of people living in houses in poor conditions, such as roof leaks, damp walls or with rotten floors and window frames, according to data released by Pordata.

In 2020, a quarter of the population (25.2 percent) lived in this type of accommodation.

Because of this, Portugal is above the European average, which in 2020 was around 14.8 percent. Pordata data shows that the percentage of people living in houses in poor condition in the country has increased 4.9 percent in the last 16 years whereby this figure was 20.4 percent in 2004.

The worst housing conditions in Europe was Cyprus, where 39.1 percent of the population lives in homes in poor conditions. In third position, behind Portugal, is Slovenia (20.8 percent), followed by Hungary (20.4 percent), and Spain (19.7 percent).

The countries where people live better are Finland where only 4.5 percent of the population lived in houses in bad conditions , Slovakia (4.9 percent), Poland (6 percent), Malta (6.1 percent), and the Czech Republic (6.8 percent).

Over one million Portuguese lived in overcrowded houses in 2021

The percentage of people living in overcrowded conditions in recent years has also increased. A recent study by the National Statistics Institute (INE), indicated that in 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, 10.6 percent of people lived in conditions of insufficient housing space in Portugal, this being the highest value of the last three years: 9.6 percent in 2018, 9.5 percent in 2019 and 9.0 percent in 2020.

According to INE, living in overcrowded accommodation was, in 2021, a condition that mainly affected families at risk of poverty (18.8 percent) and families living in densely populated areas (13.2 percent).