At least in Vienna and Berlin a lot of modern small 1-2 BR apartments are the same apartments that 100+ years ago housed a whole family (or 2!).
For example we (2 adults + 1 toddler) live in an old 70m^2 (750 square feet) apartment that's built in a way suggesting it originally housed 2 families in the 2 large rooms (what we now use as 1 bedroom and 1 living-room) and shared the kitchen/bathroom. So it is very likely 8+ people lived here, and it is now considered small for the 3 of us.
The apartment building is from either the late 19th century or early 20th century.
I imagine a lot of these tiny "single-person" apartments in Paris used to house a lot more than 1 person 100+ years ago.
For example we (2 adults + 1 toddler) live in an old 70m^2 (750 square feet) apartment that's built in a way suggesting it originally housed 2 families in the 2 large rooms (what we now use as 1 bedroom and 1 living-room) and shared the kitchen/bathroom. So it is very likely 8+ people lived here, and it is now considered small for the 3 of us.
The apartment building is from either the late 19th century or early 20th century.
I imagine a lot of these tiny "single-person" apartments in Paris used to house a lot more than 1 person 100+ years ago.