The National Statistics Office said today that the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) survey has revealed that during 2015, the percentage of persons living in overcrowded households stood at 3.5 per cent. The median housing cost burden, as a percentage of household disposable income, stood at 4.2 per cent.

Almost one third of all households reported pollution, grime or other environmental problems as one of the problems related to their main dwelling. Second to this was noise from neighbours or from the street, which was experienced by 26 per cent of all households.

SILC is an annual survey that collects information on the income and living conditions of private households in Malta and Gozo. This is a panel survey (same sample persons are followed for four years) and in 2015 almost 4,300 households were included in the study.

In 2015, less than half of all households (44.0 per cent) in Malta and Gozo resided in houses (including detached, semi-detached or terraced houses). The remaining share of households was mostly living either in apartments or maisonettes.

The largest proportion of main dwellings, 31.1 per cent, contained 5 rooms. This was followed by 23.0 per cent of dwellings composed of 6 rooms, and 19.4 per cent composed of 7 or more rooms.

Home ownership was the most common type of tenure status, with 76.5 per cent of all households owning their main dwelling. Of these, more than three fourths were outright owners, meaning that they either never had a mortgage on their main dwelling or have repaid their debt.

When considering households with dependent children, the share of home owners (85.7 per cent) was higher than that for households without dependent children (71.5 per cent). However the trend is reversed for rented main dwellings with 22.6 per cent of households without dependent children being tenants as against 9.8 per cent of households with dependent children.

In 2015, 3.5 per cent of all persons living in private households lived in overcrowded households. The overcrowding rate is defined by the number of rooms available to the household in relation to the household's size and other demographics.

In owned households the overcrowding rate stood at 2.5 per cent, whereas the corresponding rate for persons living in rented dwellings was 9.5 per cent. The overcrowding rate can also be observed to be linked to relative poverty.

For example, for persons who were at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion, the overcrowding rate stood at 8.2 per cent whereas this rate stood at 2.2 per cent for the rest of the population.

Moreover, rates of monetary poverty and material deprivation turned out to be significantly higher for persons living in overcrowded households, when compared to the rest of the target population. While the overall at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate stood at 22.4 per cent, it more than doubled to 52.2 per cent when only considering persons living in overcrowded households.

The average monthly housing cost in 2015 was estimated at €141. Households with an annual disposable income of €10,000 or less, spent an average of €85 a month to cover housing costs, while households at the other end of the income spectrum, earning more than €30,000, spent €196 per month.

Overall, housing costs were perceived to be somewhat of a burden by 55 per cent of all persons living in households. A further 34 per cent considered these costs to be a heavy burden, while for the remaining 11 per cent they were of no burden at ail.

The median housing cost burden indicator, which measures housing costs as a percentage of household disposable income, stood at 4.2 per cent. For persons at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion, the median housing cost burden stood at 6.0 per cent.

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