Housing Quality in Europe A Comparative Analysis Based on EU-SILC Data Heinz-Herbert Noll & Stefan Weick GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences Social Indicators Research Centre (ZSi) Mannheim, Germany 3rd European User Conference for EU-LFS and EU-SILC, Mannheim, March 21-22, 2013 Session D: Quality of Life
Access to adequate housing and quality of housing conditions Major component of Quality of Life Access to good quality and affordable housing is a fundamental need and right, and a key factor determining people s social situation (EU-Commission 2010) Important target for policy making at national and supra-national levels: e.g. Habitat Program United Nations: Governments are bound to promote, to protect and to ensure the full and progressive realisation of the right to adequate housing EU - Social Inclusion Policies: Importance of housing for social inclusion, e.g. acknowledged at the Lisbon and Feira European Councils. Explicit reference to the need "to implement policies which aim to provide access for all to decent and sanitary housing National Policies
Issues Addressed: Prevalence of Different Housing Models: Home Ownership vs. Renting Prevalence of Different Ways of Housing: Types of Buildings Differences in the Quality of Housing: - Rooms Available - Basic Amenities - Perceived Problems in Neighbourhood - Accessibility of Services Satisfaction with Accommodation General Focus Differences Between and Inequality Within Countries
Database: EU-SILC Microdata-Files 2007 & 2010 Total sample includes more than 225.000 households. In 2010 sample size varies between 3.700 (Cyprus) and 19.000 households (Italy); Germany ca. 13.000 EU-SILC 2007 includes special module on housing; 2012 data not yet available Prevailing Perspective (& limitation) in EU-SILC = Identification of substandard housing conditions, not measurement of general housing quality
Analysis focuses on Germany compared with other single European countries two groups of countries: EU-15 countries except Germany (= Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) New Member States in Eastern Europe (= Bulgaria / Romania (only 2010), Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) Analysis follows household perspective rather than individual perspective!
Bulgaria Poland EU-East Estonia Hungary Slovenia Slovak Republic Espana Latvia Cyprus Norway Malta Italia Portugal Czech Republic Ellada Iceland Ireland EU-15 except D United Kingdom Suomi Belgique Luxembourg Sverige France Oesterreich Danmark Nederland Germany Database: EU-SILC 2010 Households by Housing-Status Across Europe - 2010 48 96 96 94 94 94 92 91 88 87 86 84 82 81 81 80 78 77 74 72 69 69 67 66 63 63 58 58 57 52 4 4 6 6 6 8 9 12 13 14 16 18 19 19 20 22 23 26 28 31 31 33 34 37 37 42 42 43 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Owner incl. Renter without Pay Renter
Housing Status by Socio-Economic Characteristics - Europe 2010 Equivalized Household Income Quintiles Area Population Density Household Types Database: EU-SILC 2010 Owner incl. Renter without Pay Renter EU-15 EU- EU-15 except Eastern- except D D Europe D D Total 48 72 94 52 28 6 EU- Eastern- Europe 1 26 57 91 74 43 9 2 45 64 94 55 36 6 3 52 73 95 48 28 5 4 57 80 95 43 20 5 5 66 88 94 34 12 6 High 36 66 91 64 34 9 Medium 62 77 93 38 23 7 Low 62 81 96 38 19 4 living alone >65 years 45 71 96 55 29 4 living alone <30 years 7 28 58 93 72 42 lone parent with children 24 43 86 76 57 14 couples without children >65 Jahre 68 86 97 32 14 3 couples without children <65 Jahre 46 72 92 54 28 8 couples with children 66 78 93 34 22 7
Households by Type of Building - Europe 2010 37 Germany 41 22 58 EU-15 except D 17 25 51 EU-East 8 41 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 1-Family-Home Building < 10 Flats Building 10+ Flats Database: EU-SILC 2010
Housing Quality by Socio-Economic Characteristics - Europe 2010 Equivalized Household Income Quintiles Area Population Density Less Than 1 Room / Person More Than 2 Rooms / Person EU-15 EU- EU-15 EUexcept Eastern- except Eastern- D D Europe D D Europe Total 3 7 30 28 33 10 1 4 11 34 22 34 13 2 4 8 30 26 33 12 3 3 7 31 26 30 9 4 2 5 31 29 31 7 5 1 3 25 37 38 8 High 3 8 31 25 30 8 Medium 3 7 27 31 34 11 Low 2 5 31 29 35 11 Database: EU-SILC 2010
Availability of Basis Amenities by Socio-Economic Characteristics - Europe 2010 Equivalized Household Income Quintiles Area Population Density Household Types Housing Quality Below Standard 1) EU-15 D except D EU-Eastern- Europe Total 7 9 27 1 18 18 47 2 7 11 34 3 4 7 25 4 3 4 17 5 2 2 11 High 8 9 19 Medium 6 9 16 Low 8 10 38 living alone >65 years 7 11 40 living alone <30 years 11 8 13 lone parent with children 13 12 25 couples without children >65 Jahre 3 7 31 couples without children <65 Jahre 6 6 21 couples with children 6 6 21 Database: EU-SILC 2010
Equivalized Household Income Quintiles Area Population Density Database: EU-SILC 2010. Perceived Problems of Housing Environment - Europe 2010 1 Noise Environmental Stress Crime, Violence Vandalism D EU-15 except D EU- Eastern- Europe D EU-15 except D EU- Eastern- Europe D EU-15 except D Total 27 20 19 22 13 15 13 16 13 EU- Eastern- Europe 1 34 23 18 25 13 14 18 18 12 2 27 21 18 21 13 14 14 16 12 3 25 21 19 21 13 15 10 15 12 4 25 19 21 22 14 16 13 15 13 5 22 18 20 20 13 15 10 14 13 High 32 25 25 28 18 20 18 22 18 Medium 21 17 16 16 10 13 7 11 8 Low 19 12 15 13 7 10 7 7 9
EU-SILC 2007: Accessibility of Services: Grocery services Banking services Postal Services Public Transport Primary Health Care Services
Database: EU-SILC 2007
Accessibility of Public Transport and Primary Health Care: % Difficulties by Socio Economic Characteristics Europe 2007 Equivalized Household Income Quintiles Public Transport EU-15 except D EU- Eastern- Europe Primary Health Care EU-15 EUexcept Eastern- D D Europe D Total 19 19 20 11 16 24 1 16 22 28 12 21 33 2 20 20 25 12 18 30 3 21 19 22 12 25 26 4 21 17 17 13 10 21 5 20 16 13 9 11 17 High 7 13 11 8 13 17 Medium 31 35 20 12 18 25 Area Population Density Low 38 32 32 22 24 33 living alone >65 years 24 21 28 11 22 34 living alone <30 years 8 10 8 9 11 23 lone parent with Household 18 16 15 22 12 19 children Types couples without 19 20 24 11 19 30 children >65 Jahre couples without children <65 Jahre 24 19 18 11 14 21 couples with children 18 19 22 10 17 27 Database: EU-SILC 2007
Scale: Very satisfied, satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, very dissatisfied Database: EU-SILC 2007
Europe North/West Europe South Europe East
Logistic Regression: Satisfied with Accomodation, 2007 (dep.: Satisfied or very satisfied) EU-15-D D EU-East Densely populated area Intermediate 0.976 0.946 1.152 *** Thinly populated 1.037 0.946 1.208 *** Quintile 1 (EQ-Income) Quintile 2 1.196 *** 1.229 ** 1.241 *** Quintile 3 1.414 *** 1.091 1.222 *** Quintile 4 1.631 *** 1.410 *** 1.220 *** Quintile 5 1.991 *** 1.085 1.361 *** Owner 2.098 *** 1.187 ** 1.435 *** 1-Family-House <10 dwellings 0.799 *** 1.054 0.898 * 10+ dwellings 0.963 1.001 0.827 *** < 1 room 1-2 rooms 2.040 *** 1.449 ** 1.881 *** 2+ rooms 2.257 *** 1.389 * 2.306 *** Quality below standard 0.349 *** 0.478 *** 0.484 *** Access to Services 0.684 *** 0.909 0.684 *** Problems Environment 0.458 *** 0.708 *** 0.558 *** Observations 72281 12315 37313 r2_p 0.107 0.0197 0.0654 Exponentiated coefficients p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001
Logistic Regression: Satisfied with Accomodation, 2007 (dep.: very satisfied) EU-West D EU-Ost Densely populated area Intermediate 0.902 *** 0.820 *** 0.781 *** Thinly populated 0.882 *** 0.782 *** 0.818 *** Quintile 1 (EQ-Income) Quintile 2 1.115 *** 1.204 ** 1.032 Quintile 3 1.275 *** 1.126 1.321 *** Quintile 4 1.413 *** 1.314 *** 1.397 *** Quintile 5 1.872 *** 1.375 *** 2.159 *** Owner 1.230 *** 1.883 *** 1.458 *** 1-Family-House <10 dwellings 0.442 *** 0.798 *** 0.672 *** 10+ dwellings 0.512 *** 0.562 *** 0.525 *** < 1 room 1-2 rooms 1.987 *** 1.814 *** 1.834 *** 2+ rooms 2.447 *** 2.014 *** 2.415 *** Quality below standard 0.423 *** 0.485 *** 0.356 *** Access to Services 0.684 *** 0.721 *** 0.703 *** Problems environment 0.600 *** 0.448 *** 0.616 *** Observations 72281 12315 37313 r2_p 0.0751 0.0875 0.0700 Exponentiated coefficients p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001
Summary and Conclusions Germany stands out with respect to its exceptionally low percentage of home owners and a much larger rental market than in most other European countries The German example demonstrates however that a low level of home owners does not necessarily go together with poor housing quality and other disadvantages Concerning housing space, quality and convenience, Germany belongs clearly to the top flight in Europe (with some other countries in the North-West of Europe) Housing quality in the Eastern European countries is on average still far behind the level of the EU-15 countries, however some exceptions Housing quality and environmental conditions are frequently associated with household income; strength of association varies across countries Sometimes lower housing quality in rural areas, particularly in Eastern Europe Satisfaction with accomodation (as measured in EU-SILC) reflects to very limited extent objective housing conditions and quality; result raises doubts concerning the usability of this indicator in its current format for policy making purposes
Thanks for your attention! mailto: heinz-herbert.noll@gesis.org