Countries by Housing Cost Burden
Complete ranking of 36 countries • Percentage of households • Updated 2026
About Housing Cost Overburden Rankings
Colombia leads all 36 countries in Housing Cost Overburden with a value of 49.465, while Czechia ranks last at 3.26. This represents a 15-fold difference between the highest and lowest values.
What Housing Cost Overburden Measures
Housing Cost Overburden is a comparative indicator tracked across countries by the OECD. It provides a quantitative basis for cross-national comparison, enabling researchers and policymakers to benchmark national performance on this dimension against global peers.
Why This Ranking Matters
Examining Housing Cost Overburden across all countries reveals patterns that might not be obvious at the national level. Regional clusters, outlier nations, and historical trajectories all become clearer when the full global picture is assembled in a single ranking.
Global Range
Values range from 3.26 (Czechia) to 49.465 (Colombia) — a 15-fold difference across 36 countries.
Regional Patterns
European countries dominate this ranking, holding 14 of the top 20 positions. This strong regional concentration suggests shared economic, geographic, or policy factors that drive higher values across the continent.
Values are broadly distributed across countries, with the middle 50% ranging from 11.25 to 24.063. The overall spread from 3.26 to 49.465 reflects significant global variation.
Notable Outliers
The top of the ranking is competitive: Colombia and Chile are separated by only 7%, indicating that the leading positions could shift with updated data.
Continental Leaders
Highest Ranked
The top five countries for Housing Cost Overburden are Colombia (49.465), Chile (46.228), Hungary (35.481), Luxembourg (34.125), and United States (28.985). Together, these nations represent the global leaders in this metric.
Lowest Ranked
At the other end of the spectrum, Czechia (3.26), Slovenia (6.13), Latvia (7.37), Mexico (8.26), and South Korea (8.85) have the lowest values globally.
Data Source & Methodology
Rankings are based on the latest available data from OECD, covering 36 of 249 countries and territories. Countries without data for this metric are excluded from the ranking. All values represent the most recently reported figures.
Top 10 Countries
Full Rankings
| Percentile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Colombia | 49.5% | North America | 100% |
| 2nd |  Chile | 46.2% | South America | 97% |
| 3rd |  Hungary | 35.5% | Europe | 94% |
| 4th |  Luxembourg | 34.1% | Europe | 92% |
| 5th |  United States | 29.0% | North America | 89% |
| 6th |  Greece | 25.3% | Europe | 86% |
| 7th |  Costa Rica | 24.7% | North America | 83% |
| 8th |  Spain | 24.1% | Europe | 81% |
| 9th |  Finland | 24.1% | Europe | 78% |
| 10th |  Denmark | 23.0% | Europe | 75% |
| 11th |  Iceland | 22.7% | Europe | 72% |
| 12th |  Sweden | 21.8% | Europe | 69% |
| 13th |  Canada | 19.8% | North America | 67% |
| 14th |  Switzerland | 19.7% | Europe | 64% |
| 15th |  Japan | 19.0% | Asia | 61% |
| 16th |  Portugal | 19.0% | Europe | 58% |
| 17th |  United Kingdom | 18.5% | Europe | 56% |
| 18th |  Norway | 15.9% | Europe | 53% |
| 19th |  Lithuania | 15.8% | Europe | 50% |
| 20th |  Belgium | 15.5% | Europe | 47% |
| 21st |  Turkey | 14.9% | Europe | 44% |
| 22nd |  Italy | 14.3% | Europe | 42% |
| 23rd |  Australia | 13.8% | Oceania | 39% |
| 24th |  Netherlands | 12.8% | Europe | 36% |
| 25th |  Austria | 12.4% | Europe | 33% |
| 26th |  Poland | 11.4% | Europe | 31% |
| 27th |  France | 11.2% | Europe | 28% |
| 28th |  Estonia | 11.0% | Europe | 25% |
| 29th |  Slovakia | 10.8% | Europe | 22% |
| 30th |  Ireland | 9.3% | Europe | 19% |
| 31st |  Germany | 9.2% | Europe | 17% |
| 32nd |  South Korea | 8.8% | Asia | 14% |
| 33rd |  Mexico | 8.3% | North America | 11% |
| 34th |  Latvia | 7.4% | Europe | 8% |
| 35th |  Slovenia | 6.1% | Europe | 6% |
| 36th |  Czechia | 3.3% | Europe | 3% |