Only 6% of Norwegian households live in cramped conditions. Still, city dwellers and families with small children are overrepresented: 20% of families with children live in cramped conditions, as do 14% of single parents with small children, according to Statistics Norway’s (SSB) housing statistics for 2021.
Multi-family households with children experience the highest level of cramped conditions, as in the case of several generations living under one roof. The proportion is 29%.
“32% of households with three or more children live in cramped conditions, compared with 4% of households without children. In Oslo, the difference is even greater. 59% of households with three or more children live in cramped conditions, compared with 8% of households without children,” Mathias Killengreen Revold at the SSB said in a press release.
The SSB defines cramped homes as cases where the number of rooms in the home is less than the number of people, where one person lives in one room, or where the number of square meters per person is less than 25 square meters.
Cities are overrepresented
University municipalities are also overrepresented, according to Statistics Norway.
“13% live in cramped conditions in Oslo, 11% in Trondheim, and 8% in Bergen. In Oslo, it is highest in the districts with a lot of student housing,” Revold said.
In the student municipality of Ås, as many as 16% of households live in cramped conditions.
Cramped conditions follow low income
24% of all households include tenants, and 14% of these live in cramped conditions. Only 4% of sole proprietors live in such conditions. Furthermore, 7% of shareholders or part owners live in cramped conditions. Both rental and cramped housing are associated with low income.
“Low-income households live in more cramped conditions and rent more often than households with higher incomes. Among the quarter of households with the lowest income, 13% live in cramped conditions. In the quarter with the highest income, 2% do the same,” Revold said.
Recipients of housing benefits or social assistance live in cramped conditions, while social security recipients under the age of 67 and old-age pensioners do not.
Immigrants clearly overrepresented
28% of people who immigrated from areas such as Africa and Asia live in households with little space. On the other hand, only 15% of immigrants from the EU/EEA and 8% of the rest of the population live in cramped conditions.
The SSB partly explains the over-representation by saying that more immigrants live in densely populated areas.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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