Just 2.8 per cent of Cypriots live in dwellings they consider too dark, below the EU average of 5.9 per cent, according to a Eurostat study published on Tuesday.

The study looked at the amounts of daylight in homes across the EU in 2020, asking participants to report on whether they thought their homes were too dark, and whether this was a problem for the household.

Access to daylight helps improve health and wellbeing via access to vitamin D, especially in the winter months, while it can also help improve energy efficiency by reducing the need for artificial lighting.

Surprisingly, Spain reported the highest numbers for 2020, with 10.6 per cent of people living in the country saying they considered their dwelling too dark.

Spain was followed by France (9.5 per cent; provisional data), Malta (9.4 per cent) and Hungary (7.7 per cent).

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

dwellings too dark countries top 3 countries