This map shows the percentage of households living in 'unsuitable' housing. Unsuitable means that there are too many people occupying the dwelling unit to live comfortably together, according to the National Occupancy Standard. See the bottom for an exact definition. Also refer to the map of empty bedrooms for an attempt to map under utilized housing.

This measure of overcrowding is only a general guideline indicating pressure to upgrade to a home with more bedrooms. In individual cases households that are classified as overcrowded by the criteria may well feel comfortable with their living arrangements, and some households that are classified as having suitable housing may feel high pressure to change to a place with more bedrooms.

In Metro Vancouver 9.3% of households were overcrowded by this measure, as opposed to 5.1% in Metro Calgary, 5.8% in Metro Edmonton, 6.8% in Metro Montreal and 11.2% in Metro Toronto.

On the municipal level in Vancouver, UEL/UBC stands out with 15.5% overcrowded households, mostly due to roommates in student housing falling into this category. City of Vancouver clocks in at 10.8%, Surrey at 11% and Burnaby at 11.7% (with overcrowding along the Skytrain line and surprisingly low overcrowding around SFU).

We can observe some geographic overlap with financially stretched households, even when viewing these for owner and renter households separately.

Use the search bar, zoom and pan to explore overcrowded households elsewhere in Canada.

National Occupancy Standard

The Canadian National Occupancy Standard assesses the bedroom requirements of a household based on the following criteria:

• There should be no more than two persons per bedroom;
• Children less than 5 years of age of different sexes may reasonably share a bedroom;
• Children 5 years of age or older of opposite sex should have separate bedrooms;
• Children less than 18 years of age and of the same sex may reasonably share a bedroom; and
• Single household members 18 years or over should have a separate bedroom, as should parents or couples.