In less than 10 years, between 2015 and 2023, house prices in the European Union (EU) on average rose by 48%.
The biggest increase is marked in Hungary, where prices rose 173%, and the lowest in Finland, with just 5%.
Juho Keskinen, a Finish economist, has said that the capital region of Helsinki rose to levels that are unattainable for many low and middle-income earners.”
The situation is a consequence of both wage growth and house price decreases, according to Keskinen.
"In regions where house prices have risen only modestly for an extended period of time – namely, regions outside the largest population centres – the main determining factor has been wage growth.
In Helsinki, Tampere and Turku, for example, house prices have seen more dramatic increases, as well as decreases, in recent decades."
Blocks of flats in the neighbourhood of Kaleva in Tampere, Finland, on 3 October 2024. Calculations by Juho Keskinen, the chief economist at the Mortgage Society of Finland (Hypo), reveal that house prices in Finland have fallen to an all-time low compared to wages. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
1) Over two-thirds of Europeans live in households owning their home;
2) Just over half live in a house;
3) There are on average 1.6 rooms per person;
4) There are on average 2.3 people per household;
5) 17% of Europeans live in homes that do not offer adequate space (at least one room per adult couple, single adult person, pairs of brothers or sisters aged 12 to 17, single children over 12 or pairs of children under 12)
6) 34% of Europeans live in homes that have more space than what is considered adequate: Source: Eurostat (2023)
The Foreign population in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) is highest in Western Europe and lowest in Eastern Europe.
In 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, president of the United States, visited Ireland, the ancestral home of the Kennedys.
In Cork, the second city of the Republic of Ireland, President Kennedy said:
"Most countries send out oil or iron, steel or gold or some other crop, but Ireland has had only one export and that is its people. They have gone all over the United States, and the United States has been generous to them. And I think it not unfair to say that they have been generous themselves and with their sons and daughters to the United States."
Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858), the great-grandfather of the president left Ireland for Boston in 1848.
The Irish Free State which covered 83% of the island began as an independent state in 1922 and from 1938 when a second constitution came into force. The State was renamed Eire/ Ireland.
There was a flat population in the 35 years 1926-1961 [2.972mn (1926); 2,968mn (1936; 2,955mn) 1946; 2961mn (1951); 2.898mn (1956) and 2.818mn )(1961 - (million).
Ireland's population is now above 5,400,000.
The Foreign-born in Ireland in 2023 at 26.3%, was the highest in the EU.
See the data on the immediate chart above.
Big cities and the digital revolution
I posted this detail in 2023:
Sweden: In 2000, there were nearly 8.9mn (million) people living in the Scandinavian country, and this had increased to 10.52mn in 2022.
Stockholm — 1.206mn and 1.700mn.
20% of the population in Sweden in 2022 was foreign-born.
Denmark: 5.340mn in 2000 and 5.910mn in 2023
Copenhagen — 1.077mn and 1.381mn
Foreign-born rate 15%.
Finland: In 2000 the population was 5.176mn and 5.545mn in 2013.
Helsinki — 1.019 in 2000 and 1.338mn 2022.
Foreign-born rate 8%.
The Netherlands: In 2000 the population was at 15.930mn and 17.700 in 2023.
The Netherlands, also known informally as Holland, is the most densely populated country in Europe, except for very small city countries like Monaco, Vatican City, etc. The population density is 522 per Km2.
Amsterdam — The current metro area population of Amsterdam in 2023 is 1.174mn. It was 1.005mn in 2000.
The foreign-born rate is 12%.
Ireland: In 2022 the population of the Republic of Ireland was 5.150mn, compared with 3.900 in 2002. Between 2006 and 2007 Ireland's population rose by over 140 thousand, the most significant increase throughout the surveyed period.
Dublin Metro — 1.006mn in 2002 and 1.270mn in 2022.
"In 2023, 200 million households resided in the EU. In the same year, the EU had the highest number of single adult households without children (73.4mn ), followed by couples without children (48.4 million), other types of households without children and couples with children (30.6 million and 30.3 million respectively)...
The share of single men aged 25-54 without children was much higher between 2013 and 2023 than the share of women in the same situation and increased faster than for women during this period. In 2023, 19.5 of adult men aged 25-54 were single without children against 11.5 of adult women (in 2013, 15.7 % and 9.8, respectively)."
_v3.png)
