A research table covered with printed city maps, housing plans, and notebooks beside a window.

Data

Global housing data

A desk for sourced statistics, charts, comparisons, and the methods behind them.

Every figure should carry a source, geography, period, and retrieval date. If it cannot, it does not belong on the homepage.

DATA

Urban population

57.7%

share of world population

Geography
World
Period
2024

World Bank WDI SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS, based on UN World Urbanization Prospects. National definitions of urban areas differ.

DATA

People lacking adequate housing

2.8 billion

people

Geography
World
Period
2024

UN-Habitat 2024 Annual Report. 'Adequate housing' is a rights-based concept, not a single dwelling-unit count. Earlier UN-Habitat papers have used a range of 1.6–3 billion.

DATA

People in slums and informal settlements

1.1 billion

people

Geography
World
Period
2024

Included within the wider inadequate-housing estimate. Definitions of slums and informal settlements follow UN-Habitat / SDG 11.1 practice.

DATA

New units needed per day to 2030

96,000

housing units per day

Geography
World
Period
through 2030

UN-Habitat estimate of the production pace required to meet adequate-housing needs by 2030. This is a need estimate, not observed construction.

DATA

OECD real house prices vs. a decade earlier

+40%

real price change, OECD average

Geography
World
Period
about 2014–2024
Source
OECD

OECD states that real house prices increased by over 40% over the past decade on average across the OECD. This is an average of member countries, not a global median price.

DATA

Low-income OECD tenants overburdened

1 in 3

share of low-income tenant households

Geography
World
Period
latest OECD AHD compilation
Source
OECD

OECD: on average, one in three low-income tenant households spend over 40% of disposable income on rent. Overburden is higher than half in some countries, including the United States.