PHC 2011: the average area and number of rooms of Estonian dwellings have grown

Out of 657,791 rooms used for habitation 98.8% (649,746) were conventional dwellings (an apartment, a family dwelling, a box of a terraced or semi-detached house), 1.1% hostel rooms with permanent residents or other accommodation rooms and 0.2% non-dwellings used for habitation. Compared to the 2000 Population Census, the number of conventional dwellings in Estonia has increased by 32,347 or 5.2%.

544,967 of conventional dwellings are occupied (83.9% of conventional dwellings) and 93,442 are without permanent residents. The share of conventional dwellings has decreased in the period between the two censuses – in 2000, 87.1% of conventional dwellings were occupied.
According to the data of the 2011 Population Census, conventional dwellings are situated in 215,620 buildings, of which 23,616 are apartment houses, 178,069 one-family dwellings, 13,146 other small residential buildings (boxes of terraced or semi-detached houses) and 789 non-residential buildings with dwellings. The number of buildings with conventional dwellings increased by about 9.1% compared to the 2000 Population and Housing Census. Of conventional dwellings, 68.8% are situated in apartment houses, 31% in small residential buildings and 0.2% in non-residential buildings with dwellings.

93.4% of conventional dwellings are owned by residents of Estonia, 2.3% by residents of foreign country, 1.8% by state or local government.

Area and number of rooms of occupied conventional dwellings

The average area of an occupied conventional dwelling per inhabitant was 30.5 m², in the previous Census – 24 m². Compared to the previous Census, the average area per inhabitant has increased in all counties of Estonia.

There were on average 1.24 rooms per inhabitant in an occupied conventional dwelling, in the 2000 Population Census the respective indicator was 1.06. Apartment houses have mostly two-roomed apartments with the area of 40–49 m² and three-roomed apartments with the area of 60–79 m². In one-family dwellings and other small residential buildings there are mostly four or more rooms with the average floor area of at least 100 m². 

Average area of occupied dwellings per inhabitant, 31.12.2011

The schedule of publication of the results of PHC 2011 is available on the website www.stat.ee/phc2011.

The eleventh Population Census in Estonia was conducted from 31 December 2011 until 31 March 2012. Previous censuses were carried out in 1881, 1897, 1922, 1934, 1941, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989 and 2000. The next Population Census in Estonia will be conducted in 2020/2021.