Sociodemographic analysis of the objective and subjective conditions of overcrowding in Spain

© 2018, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. All rights reserved. Given the preference for objective indicators established by agents outside the household, measures to counter overcrowding rarely include the ways in which people evaluate the availability of space in their homes. In the context of such gap, the article analyzes overcrowding in Spain from a demographic perspective, on the basis of the objective and subjective indicators provided by the Living Conditions Survey carried out between 2004 and 2007. The starting point is the statistical relation between those indicators and the demographic and socioeconomic variables of the persons, their households, and their living quarters. Comparison of the results of the models obtained for each one of the ways of measuring overcrowding shows that the difference between the reality and the perception of sufficiency of space in a house is highly determined by the moment of the life cycle, as well as by type of tenancy.