10% of people in Malta live in dark dwellings – Eurostat

Just under 10% of people in Malta, the third highest rate in the European Union, reported not having enough daylight in their dwelling, meaning their dwelling seemed too dark and was viewed as a problem for the household.

Data published by Eurostat shows that across the bloc, some 5.9% of people reported similar conditions. The data updated to the end of 2020.

Access to daylight in dwellings helps improve the health and wellbeing, while it can also help improve energy efficiency by reducing the need for artificial lighting.

In 2020, over 10% of people living in Spain considered their dwelling too dark (10.6%), which was the highest share recorded among the EU Member States. Spain was followed by France (9.5%; provisional data), Malta (9.4%) and Hungary (7.7%).

In contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Slovakia (2.6%, provisional data), Italy (2.6%, 2019 data), Cyprus (2.8%) and Czechia (3.1%).