Report: Latvians live in more cramped dwellings than EU citizens on average

In Latvia, the average size of dwellings is one third smaller than in the EU on average, SEB Bank said in its latest Baltic household outlook report.

While Latvian and Lithuanian households live in homes where the average dwelling space is 63 square meters, the second lowest figure in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the average dwelling in the EU is 96 square meters large, according to the SEB report.

Only Romanians live in even more cramped conditions than Latvians and Lithuanians. Estonians, meanwhile, live in the most spacious dwellings in the Baltics, averaging at 67 square meters.

One of the reasons for the small average size of homes in Baltic countries is that the percentage of households living in private houses is comparatively low in the Baltics, authors of the report conclude.

While in Croatia 78 percent of households live in private houses, the percentage of Latvian households living in private houses is a mere 35 percent. Furthermore, most private houses in Baltic countries are situated in rural regions and only 14 to 15 percent of urban households live in private houses. Across the EU, private house dwellers make up 40 percent of all urban households.

Statistics show that the number of households living in private houses has been rising very slowly over the past eight years. Compared to 2005, the figure has risen by 3.2 percent in Latvia and by 2.0 percent in Lithuania and has even decreased by 0.5 percent in Estonia. Endit