INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE

STUDIES AND REPORTS
Series N (Statistics) No. 13

METHODS OF COMPILING
HOUSING STATISTICS

GENEVA
1928

PREFACE

At the present moment, when the housing question, with its
manifold economic and social problems, is more and more
attracting the attention of administrative bodies and public
opinion, it is highly necessary that exact information on the.
subject should be available.
Housing statistics, which have hardly existed for more than
a few decades, have recently undergone considerable development ; but they are, however, still somewhat haphazard. Both
local and central administrative authorities take part in the
compilation of such statistics, and often without regard to
what is being done outside their own sphere of activity. An
effort towards co-ordination on a common basis is thus essential,
since comparisons between one locality and another, or between
one country and another, are becoming daily of more urgent
necessity.
The question of compiling the various statistics on uniform
methods had already been broached before the war. The
German and the Swiss unions of municipal statistical offices,
as well as various learned societies, had been dealing with the
matter for some considerable time, but predominantly from a
national point of view. The fourteenth Congress of Hygiene
and Demography, held in Berlin in 1907, was one of the first
to consider these questions in their international aspect. Later,
in 1913, at the fourteenth session of the International Statistical
Institute, at Vienna, a report was presented on this subject,
but no decision was taken. The outbreak of the war then
interrupted these first efforts towards standardisation. After
the war, this question was placed on the agenda of the International Housing Congress, which was to have met in Rome in
1922, but this meeting did not take place.

—

IV

—

Finally, some years later, the International Union of Municipalities took up the question from its own standpoint, and
requested the collaboration of the International Labour Office
in preparing a report on the standardisation of the various
municipal statistics dealing with housing problems.
The International Labour Office which has always paid great
attention to the problems of standardisation of statistical
data \ and which has closely followed all the questions relating
to the housing of workers 2, promptly acceded to this request.
In September 1925, it laid before the Executive Committee
of the International Union of Municipalities, at its meeting in
Paris, a preliminare memorandum, of which the present study
is an expansion and development.
In order to obtain information as to the different municipal
statistics in existence, the Office applied to the authorities in a
number of large European cities, the greater number of which
forwarded a very complete series of records. Particularly
useful replies were received from the municipal authorities of
Amsterdam, Basle, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Florence, Frankfort, Hamburg, The Hague, London, Lyons, Manchester, Munich,
Oslo, Prague, Stockholm, Warsaw, and Zurich, to whom
the grateful thanks of the Office are due for the valuable cooperation which they have been so kind as to give.
1
Three international conferences of labour statisticians have indeed
already been held under t h e auspices of the International Labour Organisation and t h e Resolutions adopted by these conferences on t h e basis
of reports presented by t h e International Labour Office have laid down
the general principles for an international standardisation of the principal
branches of labour statistics. On this subject see Studies and Reports

of the

INTERNATIONAL L A B O U R O F F I C E , Series N, Nos.

1-12.

2

In 1922 a Resolution of the International Labour Conference invited
the Governing Body of t h e International Labour Office to " examine
the opportuneness of t h e Office pursuing studies undertaken on this
subject, having recourse if necessary t o t h e collaboration of qualified
experts "

(INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE,

Fourth

Session,

Geneva, 1922 : Stenographic Record of the Proceedings, p . 600). Since
t h a t date various publications on the development of housing legislation
h a v e been published : INTERNATIONAL LABOUR

OFFICE :

European

Housing Problems Since the War, Studies a n d Reports, Series G, No. 1,
Geneva, 1924 ; The Housing Problem in the United States, Studies and
Reports, Series G, No. 2, 1925 ; " Housing as a Post-War Problem in
Europe " , International Labour Review, Vol. X , Nos. 2 a n d 3, Aug.
and Sept. 1924 ; " The Housing Problem in Soviet Russia " , ibid.,
Vol. X I I , No. 2, Aug. 1925 ; also various comments on housing under
the heading " Social Conditions " in Industrial and Labour
Information,
Vol. X I I et seq.

y

The Office has not, however, considered it possible to limit
its analysis to municipal statistics only, as was suggested by the
Union of Municipalities, since they form only part of existing
housing statistics. Statistics compiled on a national basis have
indeed considerably developed, and it is not possible to leave
them out of account, especially since, in virtue of their national
character, they represent a basis to which municipal statistics
have or will have to be adapted. Consequently, both kinds
of statistics have been taken into consideration.

I

J

CONTENTS

Page
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION

in
'

CHAPTER I. — General Problems
Basic Units with their Characteristics and Units of
Measurement
Delimitation of the Investigation in Space and in T i m e . . .
The Methods of Investigation
The Collection of D a t a
The Presentation of D a t a
CHAPTER II. — Statistics of Dwellings
Definition of a Dwelling
Classification of Dwellings
Classification according to Intended and Actual Use.
Classification according to Size
Classification according to Other Criteria
CHAPTER III. — Statistics of Buildings with Dwellings and of
Registered Properties with Dwellings
Statistics of Buildings with Dwellings
Definition of Buildings with Dwellings
Classification of Buildings with Dwellings
Statistics of Registered Properties comprising Buildings
with Dwellings
CHAPTER IV. — Statistics of Housing Conditions
Distribution of Occupants in the Different Types of
Dwellings and Buildings
Density of Occupation
Living Together of Several Households and Composition
of Households
Housing Conditions of Different Social Groups
CHAPTER V. — Statistics of Rents
Definition of a Rented Dwelling and of R e n t
Classification of Dwellings by Rents and Determination
of Average Rents
CHAPTER VI. — Statistics of the Housing Market
Censuses of Vacant Dwellings
Definition of Vacant Dwellings
Classification of Vacant Dwellings and Comparison
with Other D a t a
Statistics of Public Housing Offices
Indexes Based on Qualitative Estimates

1

9
9
11
14
18
20
23
23
31
31
33
39
42
42
43
45
49
51
53
54
59
61
65
67
69
73
73
74
76
78
81

Vili —
Page
CHAPTER VII. — Statistics of Fluctuations in Total Housing
Supply
The Different Forms of Statistics of Fluctuations in the
Total Housing Supply and Their Characteristics
Classification of Buildings and Dwellings and Comparison
with Other D a t a
Conclusions
The Different Housing Statistics
The Statistical Units
Censuses of Dwellings
Censuses of Buildings with Dwellings
Censuses of Housing Conditions
Statistics of Rents
Statistics of the Housing Market
Statistics of Fluctuations in the Total Housing Supply . .
A P P E N D I X . —List of Official Statistical Reports relating to Housing
Used in the Present Study

83
85
89
95
95
96
99
100
101
103
105
106
109

\

INTRODUCTION

By the expression " housing statistics " is understood all
statistics concerned directly with housing problems, and capable
of throwing a light on housing policy. It will thus be necessary
to include in this study a number of fairly different types of
statistical records.
A study of housing censuses proper will first be made, that
is, those of separate dwellings and of buildings containing dwellings (and to some extent of registered properties), as well as
of censuses of the persons inhabiting these houses or dwellings,
by means of which the prevailing housing conditions can be
brought out. Statistics concerning rents will then be treated,
as well as those which can be used to ascertain the situation
existing in the housing market (supply of and demand for
dwellings). Lastly, the statistics regarding the construction,
transformation and demolition of buildings will be examined,
which enable the fluctuations in the total housing supplies, that
is, the changes which gradually take place in the total stock of
dwellings and buildings, to be studied.
This study is, however, confined to statistics dealing with
urban centres, since it is in these that housing policy is particularly active. In rural areas housing problems present themselves in quite a different manner, and require peculiar treatment ; statistics applying to these are also still rather rare ;
they must, moreover, be compiled according to a plan which
conforms to that of the other statistics regarding agricultural
life.
It should be noted that the various statistics of urban housing
have not as their sole purpose the provision of information on
which to base housing policy, but that they are also of interest
to the town planner, who is concerned with the laying out and
development of the city as a whole, or to the sociologist, who
studies the conditions of life of the various classes of society.
These persons have special needs, which cannot be neglected
in studying the methods of compiling housing statistics ; and

— 2 —

they are, therefore, taken into consideration also as the necessity
arises ; but it is primarily from the standpoint of housing policy
that this research has been undertaken.
Historically, the development of different branches of housing
statistics has been fairly gradual ; it has progressed at a rate
corresponding with the extent to which public authorities have
undertaken responsibilities in regard to housing.
Up to the end of the nineteenth century, the public authorities, under the influence of the economic liberalism of the
laissez-faire school, hardly dealt at all with housing. The State
systematically excluded from its competence the questions which
would have involved action in this sphere ; local authorities
restricted their responsibility to the problem of town or street
planning, and the building as well as the sale or lease of real
estate providing housing accommodation was regarded as coming strictly within the scope of private enterprise. Consequently,
during this period statistics bearing on housing problems are
somewhat rare.
Little by little, however, the conception of social policy in
regard to housing began to take form, and certain municipalities
began to feel concerned as to the conditions under which their
population was housed. About 1860 there appeared, principally
in Central Europe 1, the first statistical investigations dealing
in any really scientific manner with these questions ; but these
were still confined to a few isolated localities.
A little later the central Governments began to realise the
importance of compiling statistics on a national basis which
would provide information as to the housing conditions of the
populations of their countries, and in the course of the last
decade of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth
they added to the scope of their general population censuses
1

Particular mention should be made of one of the first censuses of
this kind taken in Germany, viz. the Berlin census of 1864 (S. NEUMANN :
Die Resultate der Berliner Volkszählung vom 3. Dezember 1864 ; Berlin,
1866). This was followed by one taken in Königsberg in the course of
the same year and by those of Hamburg, Leipzig and Chemnitz in 1867,
as well as the Swiss enquiry, which has become famous and was undertaken in Basle in 1899 (K. BÜCHER : Die Wohnungs-Enquête in der Stadt
Basel vom 1. bis 19. Februar 1889; Basle, 1891). On this subject, for
the whole of the subsequent period up to the war, see the two following
works : Beiträge zur Arbeiterstatistik, No. 12 : " Gebiete und Methoden
der amtlichen Arbeitsstatistik in den wichtigsten Industriestaaten ",
prepared by the KAISERL. STATISTISCHE AMT, Berlin, 1903 ; and Bernard
FRANKE : Grundstücks- und Wohnungsstatistik : Chapter L, " Die
Statistik in Deutschland nach ihrem heutigen Stand ", Vol. II, Festgabe
für Georg v. Mayr, Munich and Berlin, 1911.

— 3 —
returns dealing with dwellings, buildings and housing conditions.
In the cases in which the national Governments did not undertake these enquiries, or undertook them on a too restricted scale,
the various municipal services joined together to take such
censuses on a uniform basis so as to obtain comparable returns.
The same progress was not made in the matter of the other
housing statistics — those of rents, housing market, and fluctuations in the total housing supply. This is because, apart
from the general censuses of rents included in the censuses of
inhabited buildings, these various statistics require to be compiled periodically for the purpose of tracing the fluctuations in
the phenomena studied, and it was (and still is) only the municipalities, which manifest a deeper interest in housing problems,
that undertook the task of regularly collecting such data.
Again, since some of these statistics are established as a result
of the activities of the public services — e.g. supervision of
building and organisation of the sale and lease of dwellings —
they cannot be obtained unless such departments of the public
services are functioning as they should.
After the war, the general housing shortage which prevailed
in the majority of countries compelled the Governments to
take direct action in regard to housing problems. Then it was
that the gaps in the existing statistics became evident. Quite
elementary data, needed to give direction to their policy of
encouraging building, were not at the disposal of the Governments. Estimates of the housing shortage were made in various
quarters, but the results obtained did not really agree. In
some countries it was decided to undertake systematic enquiries
on a large scale. In almost all cases an important place has
been allotted to the question of housing in the censuses that
have been taken since 1920. It is becoming a much more
general practice in the various localities to collect statistics
concerning rents, the housing market, and fluctuations in the
total housing, and earnest attempts have been made towards
standardisation on a national basis.
It is certain that this development of the various kinds of
housing statistics will continue, for it is evident that in these
days social policy in the matter of housing is becoming more
and more important. Governments which have been compelled
by the post-war housing shortage to adopt a policy of intervention will probably change their policy once the critical
period has passed ; but they will certainly not be able to leave

— 4 —
the matter out of consideration. Sooner or later this problem
will have to be looked at on an international plane, and even
now it is absolutely necessary to make comparisons between
one country and another in order to obtain information as to
the situation existing elsewhere and the experiments made by
others.
So the problem of the unification of housing statistics has to
be solved at the present time on both a national and an international basis. It deserves very serious attention, for it is not
lacking in difficulties.
It is not only that the investigator is confronted with divergencies in statistical methods, but that he is also faced with
differences in the actual nature of the things that have to be
compared, the kind of housing accommodation varying with
the stage of civilisation, the manners and customs and the
prosperity of the population to be housed, and with the climatic
conditions of the country.
So it is that certain structural types have come into use in
certain countries, the equivalent of which cannot be found in
others. The houses built in tropical lands, for instance, have
nothing in common with those of cold or temperate regions.
Even without going so far, the hovels which are found in certain
quarters of our big modern cities are hardly to be compared
with even the modest types of accommodation provided in
other more recently built and better planned quarters. Again,
the small detached or semi-detached cottage or villa standing
in its own little garden, which is found so generally in the AngloSaxon countries, for example, represents quite another class of
housing than the cramped flats of the great barrack blocks
which have become such a prominent feature of certain parts of
Central Europe.
The internal arrangements of dwellings also differ very
considerably. The methods of heating, which are of primary
importance in northern countries, are of hardly any in warmer
climes. The " alcove " 1, which is considered an almost
indispensable part of dwellings in certain countries, is nonexistent in others. The kitchen, which in some cases is devoted
exclusively to the preparation of meals, in other cases plays the
part of dining room or living room, or serves as a bedroom for
1

Usually a space at the back or side of a room, shut off by folding
or other doors, and serving as sleeping accommodation.

— 5 —
servants or even for members of the family. The water-closets
fulfilling all the requirements of hygiene and modern comfort
which are found in certain districts or in the dwellings provided
for the well-to-do classes can hardly be compared with the
primitive arrangements to be found elsewhere.
It will be admitted that under these conditions the possibilities of comparison between one locality or country and another
are relatively limited, and that no hopes can be entertained in
this respect of obtaining an absolutely strict standardisation of
statistical data. Nevertheless, it appears to be possible to
eliminate certain divergencies still existing in the fundamental
definitions and in methods of compilation, and also to be
possible to set up uniform standards to which the various
national services could adapt their statistics without sacrificing
the value of these in answering local needs and circumstances.
That is the task to which this research is devoted.
In the pages which follow attention will be paid first of all,
in Chapter I, to the general problems presented by all the
various branches of housing statistics.
The special problems proper to each of the various branches
will be treated in subsequent chapters.
Three chapters will be devoted to the question of housing
censuses, considered under three separate heads, according to
the special object in view :
Statistics of dwellings, which aim at determining the total
supply of dwellings at a given moment and their characteristics ;
Statistics of buildings with dwellings and statistics of registered properties 1 comprising buildings, with dwellings,
which bring out the structural character of the housing
accommodation available ;
Statistics of housing conditions, which show the manner in
which the dwellings and inhabited buildings are utilised,
and consequently the conditions under which the population is actually housed.
1
Registered properties {parcelles cadastrales) : in many European
countries registers are kept of all properties with the buildings erected
on them, each unit of property (buildings always belonging to the same
owner as the land) being entitled a parcelle cadastrale, whether consisting
of an unoccupied site, a single house and grounds, a block of houses
with grounds, or a whole street.

— 6 —
The following chapter will be reserved for statistics of rents,
under which term will be included, on the one hand, the general
censuses of rents made on a similar basis to those of dwellings
(of which they often form a supplementary section), and on
the other hand, enquiries made on a more restricted scale but
at more frequent intervals.
In the chapter devoted to housing market statistics, consideration will first be given to the census returns of unoccupied
dwellings taken at regular intervals, and to the estimates of the
housing requirements of the population which often accompany
these investigations, and then to the data which should be used
in the production of approximate indexes of the position of
the housing market, and particularly the information regarding
supply and demand contained in the registers of the public
housing offices.
The final chapter will be devoted to the subject of statistics
of fluctuations in the total housing supply1. There several kinds
of statistics will be considered : on the one hand, those which
relate to the total amount of building activities, whether they
be operations actually carried out or simply plans submitted
to or approved by the authorities ; and on the other hand, those
relating to construction carried out, or projected, by aid of
grants from public funds or organised by big public bodies or
private building societies.
In conclusion the essential points that have come out in the
course of the analysis will be summed up.
The whole study will be based on actual facts, and reference
will be made repeatedly to concrete examples. Nevertheless,
these notes cannot claim to give all the instances in which a
particular experiment has been carried out, since the information on which this study has been based, although fairly
extensive, could not be considered absolutely complete. In
the first place the study undertaken is restricted to comparatively recent documents, dating from the years since and immediately before the war (1910-1914) ; and in the second place,
while it includes the principal national publications during that
period, in the matter of municipal publications it does not go

1

In French, le mouvement des habitations.

— 7 —

beyond those of a limited number of selected cities in various
countries. Such as it is, however, it may be claimed that the
information available has been sufficient for bringing out the
principal problems which arise and for examining the various
solutions which have been adopted. At the end of the book
there will be found a detailed list of the publications which
have formed the basis of this study.

CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROBLEMS

BASIC UNITS WITH THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND UNITS
MEASUREMENT

OF

Basic units are, in the sense in which this term is understood
here, the units which are enumerated, measured, and classified
according to their various characteristics.
In housing statistics, which are intended to provide a basis
for housing policy, the principal basic unit is undoubtedly
that of the dwelling considered as the home of a household.
Since, however, a number of dwellings are often contained under
a single roof, it will be necessary also to study the characteristics
of the buildings which contain them ; this suggests as another
basic unit the building with a dwelling or dwellings. On the
other hand, since a dwelling is usually subdivided into several
rooms, these have in certain cases also been enumerated, without
reference to their distribution between the various dwellings,
and in this way a new basic unit, that of the room, has been
introduced.
Further, in order to approach certain legal problems connected
with housing policy — the ownership of dwellings, the forms
of acquiring them — use has been made in certain countries
of a basic unit of a legal character which lent itself better to
this purpose, i.e. the registered property which is the site of
the buildings with dwellings 1.
Housing policy is not concerned solely with the condition
of existing housing accommodation ; it is also concerned with
the manner in which it is utilised, and the housing conditions
which result therefrom. It will thus be necessary to bring in
a basic unit of an entirely different order, the persons inhabiting
1

See footnote to p. 5.

— 10 —
the dwellings. Further, since these persons do not live in their
dwellings as isolated individuals, consideration will also have
to be paid to the various groups they may form. Among these
there is one of particular importance, the household (giving to
this term a wide interpretation) ; for one of the fundamental
principles of housing policy is the desirability of reserving one
dwelling to each household. This must consequently also be
taken as a basic unit.,
Some of these units are common to several of the different
branches into which housing statistics have been divided, and
in some of these branches several distinct basic units will be
found. Thus in the statistics of dwellings, in those of buildings
with dwellings, and in those of registered properties comprising
buildings with dwellings, the basic units are respectively —
as is indicated by their names — the dwelling, the building,
and the registered property on which buildings with dwellings
are erected. Similarly, statistics of rents and those of the
housing market both have as their basic unit the dwelling, but
their scope is different. The first deals only with rented dwellings, the rents of which it analyses, and the second with dwellings offered (that is, vacant dwellings) and those demanded.
In statistics of housing conditions there may, on the contrary,
be three main basic units — the individual, the dwelling, and
the household — each requiring separate analysis. The statistics of fluctuations in total housing supply, again, are built up
on two basic units : the building and the dwelling.
One of the first processes in statistical analysis consists in
classifying the basic units according to their different characteristics. In housing statistics this classification may be made,
in the first instance, according to purely qualitative criteria :
the absence or presence of certain structural features in buildings containing dwellings, or of certain internal arrangements
of the dwellings or rooms. It can equally well be made according to quantitative criteria, which means that each basic
unit is first subjected to a process of measurement, and the
classification is carried out on the basis of the measurements so
obtained. This naturally presupposes the introduction of a unit
of measurement, which may be either a standard commonly
adopted for measuring size, value, duration (metres or feet,
currency unit, month, week, etc.), or even one of the elements
of the basic unit : the room, as giving the size of the dwelling
or building ; the story for the height of the building ; or the

— 11 —
window as a measure of the degree of ventilation of the room,
etc. The fact must also be emphasised that these units of
measurement can be actually the same as those elsewhere
adopted as basic units. Thus the dwelling is used as a unit
of measurement of the size of the building in statistics of buildings. Similarly, the individual serves as a unit of measurement
for calculating density of occupation, and then appears simultaneously as a basic unit and a unit of measurement. The
statistics in fact give the number of individuals — basic units
— classified according to the number of individuals — units of
measurement — who share the same dwelling.
The chapters devoted to the special problems of the different
branches of statistics will deal with the question of the exact
definition of the various basic units, the characteristics of these
units which require consideration, and the method of measuring
them.

DELIMITATION OF THE INVESTIGATION IN SPACE AND IN TIME

The geographical scope of a statistical enquiry naturally
depends in the first place on the authorities under whose auspices it has been undertaken, since these authorities cannot
trespass beyond the bounds of their administrative areas.
It has already been mentioned that there has been a tendency
in the last score or so of years for housing statistics to pass
from the hands of the municipalities into those of the State,
and that where their compilation is still in municipal hands
an attempt has been made to co-ordinate the various local
statistics on a national basis.
It should be noted that many so-called " national " censuses
are really restricted to urban centres of a certain size x. For
1

Thus, the census taken in Finland in 1919 and that taken in Sweden
in 1920, while covering all urban centres dealt only with one-sixth of
the total population, by reason of the agricultural character of these
countries.
In Austria, the census of 1910 was taken in 132 urban communes,
and covered nearly one-fifth of the total population ; further, the
thoroughness of the enquiry varied with the size of the locality ; in
sixty-two communes belonging to the ten most important cities, certain
supplementary questions were added to the census papers.
The German census of 1918 applied to communes having a population
of over 5,000, also to those with a smaller population but situated in
an industrial area, or adjacent to a more important commune, the

— 12 —
these investigations, the problem of delimitation in space consists
in the choice of the centres to be studied and in the delimitation
of these individual centres. Housing statistics really covering
the whole of the national territory are to be found only in
comparatively few countries, and here again the investigations
have not always been earned out with very great thoroughness 1.
Besides, if it is desired to use these statistics for exploring housing problems at all thoroughly, a very clear distinction must be
drawn between urban and rural areas, since the problems in
these two types of area are very different, and must thus be
approached separately. Here again then, in order to make a
clear distinction between town and country districts, it will be
necessary to lay down exactly what is to be understood by an
urban centre.
This process is carried out by fairly similar methods in the
various statistics, but it must be said that the manner in which
it is performed is very generally defective. Almost universally,
indeed, the basic area is that of the existing political and or
administrative divisions, and the central area of a town may be
grouped with the outer district or districts, whether of an urban
or suburban character. This procedure, following the methods
of the general population censuses, for which it is adequate in
many respects, offers marked disadvantages for housing statistics ; for these political or administrative boundaries, fixed
often years ago on historical and other grounds, are frequently
out of date from a practical standpoint, and it often happens
that by adhering to them certain areas of a suburban character
are left out and that, on the other hand, a town area may be
made to include regions which are rather rural in character.
population of which might eventually overflow into the smaller commune;,
it is estimated that in this manner reports were obtained covering.
about 55 per cent, of the total population of the country.
The Swiss census of 1920 was restricted to communes of more than
5,000 inhabitants, to those forming the outer circle of large towns and
to other communes specially chosen by the cantonal authorities. As
the latter made large use of this discretionary power, the census actually
covered 59 per cent, of the total population.
1
Examples of censuses covering a whole country are to be found
particularly in Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Poland,
Australia, and Canada. As a matter of fact, in Belgium the only results
published are those from fairly important localities. In Italy the
national census is very cursory ; an additional enquiry in greater detail
was undertaken by the Union of the Statistical Offices of the Italian
Municipalities on the occasion of the 1921 census, but it dealt onljr
with the principal urban centres.

— 13 —
It further sometimes happens that two sets of statistics compiled
by different departments do not apply to exactly the same
geographical area, in cases where there is some overlapping
between the administrative areas.
It would, therefore, seem to be preferable to draw new boundaries expressly for the purposes of the statistics, and in such
a way as to include in them the whole of the town under consideration. That is clearly a somewhat delicate operation, but
it does not appear to be impracticable, given a fair knowledge
of local conditions. These new limits would have to include
the whole of the area within which there is absence of rural
undertakings, the inhabitants, whether by their occupations or
as consumers, being in direct and constant touch with the
centre. It is true that such criteria could not help being to a
certain extent arbitrary. It seems, however, that they would
be sufficiently straightforward and self-evident to allow of
making the subdivision in a reasonable manner, any doubtful
cases being left to the local services to decide according to the
special circumstances of each locality.
It is clear that this operation would necessarily have to be
performed in an identical manner for all the various branches
of housing statistics, and that a preliminary arrangement would
have to be come to between the various responsible services.
The scope of the investigation in time is bound up primarily
with the purpose of the statistics and with the nature of the
phenomena recorded. By restricting the enquiry to a given
date, a static view of the phenomena is obtained. This is only
of real interest if the phenomenon is relatively stable, and
requires to be studied in all its complexity ; the enquiry being
undertaken once only, or at relatively long intervals, it can be
carried out very thoroughly and in great detail. On the other
hand, by extending the investigation over a period of some
length, it is possible to trace the evolution of a phenomenon
and to obtain a more kinetic view of it. This is essential when
there are fairly rapid changes ; but the phenomenon must be
one to which a comparatively simple process of measurement
can be applied, for, on account of the large amount of work
entailed, the record is necessarily limited to certain elementary
characteristics.
In housing statistics, the censuses of dwellings, buildings,
registered properties and housing conditions provide primarily
a static view. In statistics of rents, where the phenomena

— 14 —

studied are too complicated to be illustrated thoroughly by the
brief summary provided by a periodical return, and too unstable
for enquiries made at long intervals to be sufficient, both kinds
of investigations are used. In the statistics of the housing
market it is particularly the changes which take place in this
market which are studied, and in the statistics of fluctuations in total housing supply the object pursued is, by recording
the alterations which take place in the total supply of dwellings
and of buildings, to obtain a kinetic view which will supplement
the static record provided by the census of dwellings and
buildings.

T H E METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

In order to obtain a view of the facts — static and dynamic
— recourse must be made to two kinds of methods of investigation : either a systematic record must be made of all the basic
units in the field covered by the enquiry at the date or during
the period fixed for it, or only a fraction of them must be taken,
but in such a way that this fraction shall be representative of
the whole.
It is the former of these two methods which, in the form of
a census, is the more frequently employed in housing statistics.
The statistics of dwellings, buildings and registered properties,
and housing conditions result from general censuses. Similarly,
in the statistics of rents, a large part of the data is obtained
by censuses, often carried out in conjunction with the census
of dwellings. For statistics of the housing market a census of
vacant dwellings is sometimes taken. Again, the principle
of the complete survey is applied to the statistics of the
fluctuations in total housing supply, where what is aimed at
is a continuous record of buildings and dwellings constructed,
demolished, or transformed. This method has certainly the
advantage of providing a complete view of the phenomenon
studied, but it has the serious disadvantage of requiring a
large amount of work and being consequently too burdensome
to undertake at other than relatively infrequent intervals.
The other method appears to be more advantageous when
the chief emphasis is laid on determining the characteristics of
the basic units and the relations between them, or the changes

— 15 —
undergone. But difficulty lies in the selection of the units to
be studied ; for it is essential that the selection should be
representative at least approximately of the whole. For this
purpose records may be made according to any of three distinct
methods.
The simplest is that of the purely arbitrary choice of a certain
number of typical units which are considered representative,
basing this choice simply on a general acquaintance with the
prevailing conditions ; it does not, however, appear to provide
adequate guarantees of trustworthiness, the more so that no
means are available for estimating the extent to which the
partial data are representative of the whole. This method,
which is sometimes used for the selection of families for the
purpose of studying housing conditions in certain social classes,
or for picking out a given number of localities to be covered by
a census, has hardly been worked out at all in housing statistics,
nor is it likely that it will be in the future.
A much better method appears to be that of sampling,
which consists in picking out a given number of basic units
" at random ", but with what might be called systematised
chance, the incidence of factors which might bias the results
being excluded, thus ensuring to each unit an equal chance of
being included in the investigation. In point of fact, in accordance with the law of great numbers, a sample is thus obtained
which presents all the characteristics of the whole, and such
small divergencies as may occur can be estimated by applying
the theory of probability.
This method has so far been applied somewhat sparingly;
certain instances which appear to have given excellent results
can however be quoted. These are, the enquiry into housing
conditions in the small dwellings of the city of Christiania
(Oslo) carried out in 1913-1914 by the Municipal Statistical
Office of that city 1 ; the enquiry into rents made in January
1924 in the principal towns in Switzerland, according to the
lines laid down by the Federal Labour Office 2 ; and, finally,
two private enquiries carried out before and after the war in
six English towns, under the direction of Professor Bowley, for
1
Beboelsesjorholdene i smaaleiligheter i Kristiania,
munens Statistiske Kontor, Specialunderskkelser
II.
2

1913-1914 ; KomChristiania, 1915.

O F F I C E FÉDÉRAL D U TRAVAIL : " Résultats de l'enquête sur les

loyers effectuée au mois de janvier 1924 " . Informations
sociale, 1924. Vol. 2.

de statistique

— 16 —
the purpose of discovering the proportion of their inhabitants
living in poverty, in which housing conditions are treated in
detail x .
In using this method it is obviously of the first importance
to eliminate with care in the selection of the units any element
capable of causing a deviation from pure chance. These
conditions, however, appear to be quite realisable in the field
of housing statistics, where complete registers of the units to be
sampled are usually available. As to the proportion of basic
units which ought to be examined, this is to be determined by
taking into consideration the total number of units comprised
in the field to be surveyed, the degree of accuracy required in
the results, and the details of the analysis to which they are
to be subjected 2.
The generally recognised advantage of this method is
that it greatly diminishes the work required and consequently
the expense entailed by the investigation, while giving fairly
accurate results. For this reason, although it has not yet been
greatly used, it appears to have a great future, particularly for
the thorough examination of the kinds of dwellings and of housing conditions. Such enquiries might be undertaken as a
supplement to the censuses, which would then be restricted
solely to certain fundamentally important factors.
A quite different kind of selection is also to be met with in
some statistics. This is in no wise the result of a deliberate
experiment by the statistician, but is forced upon him by the
circumstances under which he has to collect his data. A selection of this kind is constituted by the data regarding supply
of and demand for dwellings furnished by the municipal housing
1

A. L. BOWLEY and A. R. BURNETT-HURST : Livelihood and Poverty.
London 1915. Also A. L. BOWLEY and M. H. HOGG : Has Poverty
Diminished ? London, 1925.
2
The manner in which the sampling of the dwellings in the enquiries
mentioned was carried out varied in a marked degree. In the Norwegian investigation one house in three in each street was selected, and
an examination was made of all the small dwellings (one or two rooms)
contained in these buildings. In the Swiss enquiry a survey was made
of 10 per cent, of the middle-sized dwellings (two to four rooms, with
or without attics) occupied by tenants, by limiting the investigation
to houses bearing a certain street number and sometimes to certain
stories in a house, or to certain streets distributed between various
quarters. In the English enquiries the addresses of householders were
ticked at regular intervals in local directories, rating lists, or burgess
rolls ; the proportion chosen varied, according to the size of the town,
between one in eight and one in thirty-six.

— 17 —
offices in the statistics of the housing market. These statistics
are compiled solely on the basis of the returns made to such
offices, and unless these are compulsory the figures never
include the whole of the current supply of and demand for
dwellings. How far a choice made in this way is representative
depends on the extent of the activities of the housing offices and
the manner in which they function. Similarly, in the statistics
of fluctuations in total housing supply, the data published
by some large building societies and those regarding Statesubsidised building are the result of an analogous selection. It
may be added that these statistics are often published only to
show the activities of the services in question, and that it is
only by an after-thought that use is made of them as more or
less representative indexes of a more general phenomenon.
It should be noted that the principle of representative selection is applicable not only from the point of view of space, but
also from that of time. In actual fact, where it is a case of
following the fluctuations of a phenomenon in time, all that is
done generally is to take a survey at regular and more or less
frequent intervals of the conditions obtaining at a given moment.
This simply means choosing in the "ever-rolling stream " of
time certain dates at which it is assumed to be possible to
obtain a representative view of the phenomenon. The frequency of the dates chosen will vary directly with the rapidity
of the fluctuations studied and the degree of exactitude sought.
This is the method used for the statistics of rents and of the
housing market, in which regular returns are taken of rents
and of vacant dwellings. It is also used, but less frequently,
in the statistics of the fluctuations in total housing supply,
when the number of houses or dwellings in course of construction
or demolition is ascertained at fixed dates.
The principle of continuous registration, that is to say, a
record complete in time, is applied only when it is desired to
record the volume of the changes taking place. This occurs,
for instance, in statistics of construction, where a record is
made of the number of building permits granted, or the number
of buildings completed in the course of given consecutive
periods, or, in statistics of the housing market, a record of
the number of dwellings offered or applied for as registered at
the public housing offices.

— 18 —

T H E COLLECTION OF DATA

As a rule, in statistics of housing, the general censuses of
dwellings, housing conditions, buildings, registered properties,
and rents are all taken as part of a single process, since many
of the data collected for one set of these statistics are also
required for another and the sources from which they are
derived are the same.
These sources are in general two in number, the owners of
house property and the occupiers of dwellings. In principle
the questions that have to be asked are divided between them
in such a way that both parties have to reply on the points
regarding which they are best informed.
Thus it is generally assumed that the owner is in a better
position to supply information on the structural conditions of
his property, the materials of which the houses are built, the
date of construction, the existence of accessory buildings, yards,
etc., and the number of separate dwellings comprised in each
property. The latter point is, as will be seen further on, of
particular importance, and it certainly appears to be the owner
of the building who is the person best able to judge of the merits
of border-line cases. Similarly, the owner seems the more
suitable person to reply to questions concerning rents, for he
is able to distinguish in the sums paid the part which represents
rent pure and simple from charges for the upkeep and service
of the building and taxes, which distinction the tenant cannot
or does not make.
In dealing, however, with the questions of the arrangement
of the separate lets (number of habitable rooms, amount of
additional accommodation, number of windows, existence
of closets, etc.), as well as with those of internal installation
(means of lighting and heating, running water, drains, lift, etc.),
application is made sometimes to the occupier, sometimes to
the proprietor. It appears, however, that the occupier actually
living on the premises often knows these details better than
the proprietor. The occupier is obviously also the source of
information on all questions relating to housing conditions, the
number of occupants of a dwelling, the relations between them,
and the utilisation of rooms.
The principle of the double source — owner and occupier —

— 19 —
is, however, not universally adopted. In certain countries the
censuses are based solely on returns by the occupiers of dwellings 1. They are obviously unable to reply to certain questions,
which are therefore not put. On other points there is danger
of incorrect information being given ; in particular, where the
structural bounds of a dwelling are not very distinctly drawn,
the tenants may fail to distinguish between the actual dwellings
rented by them and other parts of the premises of which they
have the use. Further, all dwellings unoccupied at the date
of the census will fail to figure in the returns unless special
application is made to the owners in these cases.
It is true that many of these gaps can be filled to some extent
by the direct observations made by the census officer, as is
done in certain countries 2. The method of applying to the
proprietors alone is only rarely adopted 3, for the proprietors
are really not in a position to furnish precise information on
many fundamentally important points, particularly those relating to the use made of the premises tenanted.
It must also be noted that the various censuses of dwellings
are usually taken in conjunction with general population censuses, for it is convenient that both statistical returns should
refer to the same date so that they can be compared with ease.
There is also the technical advantage of the possibility of using
for the collection of data the elaborate administrative machinery set up for the population censuses. On the other hand,
the simultaneous compilation of two sorts of data also meets
with certain difficulties, since the statistical offices are generally
over-burdened with work at such times.
1
For example, Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, and t h e Union of
South Africa.
2
In France, for instance, the census officer is expected to note on
a separate form the number of blocks of buildings, the number of stories,
the workshops, the premises used for both dwelling and business purposes, and vacant dwellings, and to group together for each building
all the data obtained from the returns in regard to inhabited dwellings
filled in by the tenants.
3
The Stockholm censuses are the best-known example of this form
of procedure ; in t h a t city the material on which the enquiry rests
consists of lists furnished by the owners of house property for the purpose of making census returns of the population ; these lists contain
data regarding existing dwellings, but the responsible services themselves recognise t h a t by this method some inaccuracies pass unnoticed,
particularly in the m a t t e r of the occupants of dwellings, a certain
number of them not being known to the owners. (" Tenth General
Census of Dwellings in Stockholm, 1920-1921. " Statistics of the City
of Stockholm, V, New Series, No. 4, p. 21, X. Stockholm, 1922.)

— 20 —
Censuses of rents are often taken independently of other
housing censuses, the enquiry either being conducted on a
somewhat different basis or having to be undertaken for special
reasons without waiting for the date of the next general census,
or having to be undertaken periodically at fairly close intervals.
There again, however, the owner of house property seems to
be the most reliable source.
For statistics of the housing market the method used in taking
periodical censuses of vacant dwellings is either to require
statements by the proprietors or to make a direct inspection
of buildings containing dwellings, this being carried out either
by the agents of the statistical services, or, as in many cases,
by the staff of the local police. In the case of the statistics of
supply of and demand for dwellings as registered by the housing
offices, and those of the fluctuations in the total housing supply,
the question, of choosing a source does not arise, because the
source is here the very public office from which the statistics
emanate. This is not always quite satisfactory, for as the
compilation of the data is undertaken to fulfil administrative
requirements, it often happens that those of a purely statistical
nature are not taken into consideration.

T H E PRESENTATION OF DATA

In housing statistics the presentation of data usually consists
in a classification of the basic units according to their different
characteristics, for the phenomena under observation are most
complex and require, above all things, detailed treatment. The
determination of averages is very rarely - undertaken except
in the statistics of rents — e.g. average rents for the different
types of dwellings — while the calculation of percentage or
other rates is almost entirely confined to statistics of housing
conditions — e.g. rate of density of occupation.
The establishment of the various classes must obviously
differ according to the basic unit and characteristics under
consideration ; this question is therefore reserved for the following chapters. There is, however, one characteristic which is
common to all the basic units, necessitating a preliminary
classification in all branches of housing statistics, viz. the
geographical unit.

— 21 —
The term " preliminary classification " is used because it
appears necessarily to underlie all others. The whole of the
field covered by national statistics, even if limited to urban
centres, is too heterogeneous for any satisfactory conclusions
to be obtained from collective surveys in which local peculiarities
are lost to sight. It is, therefore, desirable to subdivide the
field into a series of smaller and consequently more homogeneous entities, within which the statistical analyses can bring
out more clearly the real state of affairs. The entity obviously
most suited for this purpose, which has been universally adopted, is that of the urban aggregation, a further reason for the
choice being the fact that many housing problems require
local treatment, which is generally a matter for the municipal
authorities.
As for the actual demarcation of these urban aggregations,
it would be advantageous, as has been pointed out above, to
set aside the often out-of-date political and administrative
boundaries and to draw new boundaries more in agreement
with the existing situation. Extending the principle of establishing geographical units of as homogeneous a character as
possible, it would further be useful to subdivide town areas
themselves into smaller and more homogeneous units. This
system has already been frequently adopted in large towns,
where its necessity has been recognised because of the very
size of the urban aggregation in question. It has also been
worked out in municipal statistics * in which local conditions
1
For instance, in the 1910 census of the city of H a m b u r g , then comprising 930,000 inhabitants, thirty-one subdivisions were made, and in
t h a t of the city of Stockholm, which in 1921 had a population of about
420,000, sixteen parishes and thirty-four quarters were marked out.
This subdivision has even been carried relatively further in investigations made in certain cities of medium size. In the census of the city
of Zurich in 1910, with a population of 225,000, a division was made
into not less t h a n twenty-three quarters, grouped in eight administrative
areas ; and in t h a t of the city of Berne in 1920 the urban aggregation
of 104,000 inhabitants was divided into five administrative areas and
twenty-four quarters.
One of the censuses in which the principle of subdivision was carried
furthest was t h a t taken in the city of Warsaw in 1919, when its population was 846,000. The detailed statistical d a t a for the twenty-six
separate administrative areas making up the whole city were published.
Further, in the fifteen central areas, the principal data for 435 blocks
of houses were published separately. These blocks, the size of which
varied with the density of their population, were defined in such a
way as to form as homogeneous wholes as possible ; the number of
occupants contained in each -block varied between a few score and ten
thousand, but was in most instances one or two thousand.

— 22 —
are usually studied with greater care than in national statistics.
It should nevertheless be noted that, with certain exceptions,
these subdivisions have been made on the basis of administrative subdivisions (administrative area, district, quarter),
which are not always as homogeneous as might be wished. It
seems then that here, again, it would be better to have recourse
to a method of subdivision worked out for purely statistical
purposes. Typical zones might be marked out according to
their predominant structural characteristics. Continuous structures (blocks of houses with several stories), semi-detached
buildings (houses of small elevation with gardens either front
or back), and detached buildings (houses of moderate elevation
standing in their own grounds). Possibly the business and
factory quarters ought also to be divided off. As regards the
actual size of these units, it seems to be impossible to lay down
any rule, for this question depends on the more or less homogeneous character of the aggregation. Generally speaking, it
would however be better to adopt rather small units so as to
render them as homogeneous as possible.

CHAPTER II
STATISTICS OF DWELLINGS

Censuses of dwellings are the fundamental basis of housing
statistics. Before the war several countries compiled them,
either nationally, as in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Canada,
France, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, the Union of South
Africa, and the United States ; or by different municipalities,
but on the same principles, as in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Since the war the compilation of these statistics has
been extended. Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the
Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland now belong to the group
in which these data are collected on a national basis. In Italy,
the enquiries undertaken by the municipalities have been made
more detailed and their standardisation more complete. In
Central and Eastern Europe detailed investigations are undertaken in certain large towns such as Lodz, Prague, Riga, Vienna
and Warsaw.
Statistics of dwellings consist essentially in enumeration of
the basic units — the dwellings — and their classification according to various characteristics. The problems to be solved,
therefore, are above all those of defining the basic unit, and
choosing and defining the characteristics to be studied.
DEFINITION OF A DWELLING

It is of the first importance to define from the outset the
meaning of the term " dwelling ", the home of the household,
for it may be interpreted in many different ways.
In some cases a very clear distinction is first drawn between
dwellings lived in by households of a family nature, consisting
of members of one and the same family, to whom may be added
more distant relatives, friends, domestic servants, and boarders ;

— 24 —

and those used to accommodate groups of individuals whose
connection with each other may be either social (educational
institutions, religious bodies, various societies, barracks, hospitals, prisons, etc.), or economic (hotels, boarding-houses, lodginghouses, etc.).
This distinction does not seem expedient here, however,
for it refers more to the classification of the data than to the
definition of the basic unit. It seems preferable to define the
latter as widely as possible, and to include both family dwellings and those not of a family character.
The question of the relation between the home and the
household, whether of a family character or not, is more difficult. In theory it may be dealt with in two different ways :
either by considering the intended use of the premises or by
considering only the actual use made of them. If the first
conception is adopted, the principal factor is the arrangement
of the premises, and a dwelling is considered to be the collection
of premises forming a whole, separated from others, and making an independent domestic life possible for the household for
which it is intended. Use is therefore made of purely structural
criteria : separate entrance from the street or from a common
landing or passage, separation from other dwellings by a complete system of party-walls. With the second conception,
a dwelling is deemed to be the premises actually occupied by
a household at the time of the investigation, no account being
taken of the distribution and arrangement of the premises.
The criterion is therefore purely social — that of the household
occupying the premises. The differences arising out of these
two conceptions are clear from the outset.
In the first place, certain premises will be counted as dwellings
if one conception is used, but not with the other. Taking the
idea of intended use, for instance, dwellings will be considered
to include any premises intended for living in but still vacant,
as also those temporarily used for other purposes although no
lasting structural alterations have been made (flats used wholly
as offices or shops, or some rooms of an inhabited flat used for
a workshop, office, or other business purpose) ; but these will
be excluded if the basis is the actual use made of the premises.
On the other hand, this second principle would mean the inclusion of temporary constructions and arrangements for spending
the day or night in workshops, shops, workplaces, coach-houses,
stables, etc., which cannot be considered premises intended for

— 25 —
living in. Further, if two or more households share premises
originally intended for one household only and there has been
no change in the arrangement of the premises, the second conception will mean that the number of dwellings is considered
to be the same as that of households, whereas the first conception gives only one dwelling. Conversely, if two or more
separate flats are occupied by one household, the number of
dwellings recorded will depend on the definition adopted.
In practice, neither definition has seemed sufficiently complete
for general adoption, and as a rule a certain compromise has
been reached. In some countries, the intended use of the
premises forms the starting point, but at the same time an
attempt is made, first, to include premises which, though not
intended for living in, are used for this, and, secondly, to exclude
those which, although intended for living in, are, used for other
purposes 1. But if only some rooms in a dwelling otherwise
inhabited are used for other purposes, as in the case of homeworking trades and offices run in the home, the dwelling is
counted as such, but the rooms used for other purposes are

1
The English census of 1921 defined " a structurally separate dwelling " as " any room or set of rooms, intended or used for habitation,
having separate access either to the street or to a common landing or
staircase. Thus each flat in a block of flats is a separate unit ; a
private house which has not been structurally subdivided is similarly
a single unit whether occupied by one family or by several families. But
where a private house has been subdivided into maisonnettes or portions,
each having its front door opening on the street or on to a common
landing or staircase to which visitors have access, then each such
portion is treated as a separate unit " (Census of England and Wales,
1921, General Tables, p. 82).
The Italian census of 1911 also used the structural definition of a
dwelling. The Ministerial instructions defined a dwelling as " a set of rooms,
apartments and alcoves, or a single room, used for the accommodation
of one or more families " (Ugo GIUSTI : L'addensamento e l'affolamento
nei centri urbani al 10 giugnio, 1911 ; Union of the Statistical Offices
of Italian Municipalities, Monographs and Studies, No. 2, Florence, 1913,
p. 61), and the census form included a question to show whether several
families lived together in the same dwelling. The Union of Statistical
Offices also adopted this view ; in its supplementary enquiry undertaken on the occasion of the 1911 census, it gave as the definition of a
dwelling : " a set of rooms or a single room with access separate from
other rooms " (ibid.), and this definition was maintained when a similar
enquiry was undertaken on the occasion of the 1921 census.
Similarly, in the Polish census of 1921, a dwelling was considered to
be " any part of the building which is definitely isolated from other
similar parts and is intended exclusively for habitation ". " The
definition of the dwelling must, therefore, not be confused with that of
the household. On the contrary, the decisive factor in the definition
of the dwelling is the technical one " (The First General Census of the
Polish Republic, of 30 September 1921 : " Dwellings, Population, Occu.

— 26 —
deducted, and in some cases form the subject of special investigation \
In other countries, on the other hand, the idea of actual use
is preferred, but the definition of a dwelling is taken to include
premises which, although not used, are intended for habitation
and could be so used at any moment, in other words, vacant
dwellings 2.
It is obvious that for the delimitation of these data, the
criterion of actual use cannot be applied and recourse must
therefore be had to structural criteria.
It was probably on the basis of this experience that in 1913
Dr. van der Borght supported a similar view in his report on
the question of standardising housing statistics which he submitted to the Vienna Session of the International Institute of
Statistics. The Institute took no decision on this point, however, and appointed a committee to continue the study of the
question, but its work was interrupted by the war.
In a few cases, finally, the compromise has been carried even
pations " , p. 5 ; Statistics of Poland, published by the Central Statistical
Office of t h e Polish Republic).
Finally, Germany has quite recently adopted t h e same view. The
forms prepared for most of t h e municipal censuses taken in 1925 a n d
1926 a n d those for t h e national census of 1927 state t h a t t h e whole
dwelling must be taken into account including rooms transferred t o a
sub-tenant or co-tenant, " and all living rooms must be counted, whether
they can be heated or not, and whether actually used as such or not "
(official foTm for the national census).
Other examples are Austria (1910), Finland (1919), Norway (1910
and 1920), Prague (1921), etc.
1
In the Austrian census of 1910, for instance, dwellings were classified
according t o t h e new use made of these rooms. The classification was
as follows : textile industry, manufacture and cleaning of clothing,
wood, commerce and transport, liberal professions.
2
In France, in the 1901 a n d following censuses, the definition of t h e
dwelling coincided with t h a t of t h e household, a n d i t was stipulated
t h a t " the number of dwellings occupied must strictly equal the number
of households " (MINISTRY O F LABOUR AND SOCIAL W E L F A R E : Résultats

statistiques du recensement général de la population effectué le 24 mars
1901, Vol. V ; Paris, 1907, p . 34). In Belgium, t h e instructions for t h e
1920 census defined a dwelling as " the house or p a r t of t h e house
serving for the accommodation of t h e household " (MINISTRY OF THE
INTERIOR AND H E A L T H : Recensement général du 31 décembre 1920 :
Recensement des logements dans les communes de 10,000 habitants et plus ;
Brussels, 1925, p . 7). In Germany, most places which undertook
housing enquiries on the occasion of the general censuses of 1905 and 1910
also adopted this point of view. Almost t h e only exceptions in t h e
1905 census were a few towns in Bavaria. This view was maintained
for t h e national housing census for 1918, b u t for t h e national census
of 1927, it was given u p and, as already stated, replaced by t h a t of t h e
structural unit.

— .27 —

further, and both conceptions are adopted side by side, but
these cases are on the whole exceptional *.
It will no doubt be observed that although these various
compromises start from different standpoints, the result arrived
a t is much the same. There are differences only in two respects.
In the first place, when a dwelling is used partly for living in
and partly for other purposes, the uninhabited rooms are completely excluded from the statistics if these are. based on the
idea of actual use, but they are merely treated separately if the
idea of intended use is considered more important. The divergence is insignificant, however, for in any case the inhabited
rooms are always counted, and these, after all, are the most
important for the final analysis.
The second difference is more important. It arises when two
or more households live in a dwelling intended for only one, or
two or more flats are occupied by only one household, for it
will depend on the compromise adopted whether the households
or the dwellings as structural units are counted. It is possible
that this difference involved no serious disadvantages before
the war, for the housing shortage was not so severe as now, and
the cases in which one flat was shared by several families were,
on the whole, rare. But since the war the situation has changed,
and there are many more cases of several families living together
in one dwelling, this being, in fact, one of the symptoms of the
crisis which has to be brought out. The change which has
taken place in Germany almost universally, from the household
conception of the dwelling to the structural conception, is
particularly significant in this respect.
It may further be noted that in certain statistics a third
definition of the dwelling is used, namely, a legal definition,
according to which a dwelling consists of the premises covered
1
The best-known examples oí this system are to be found in the Swiss
censuses. The few towns which undertook a housing enquiry on the
occasion of the general population census of 1910, followed a decision
of the Union of Swiss Statistical Offices and adopted as their basic
unit the dwelling used by the household, but the form in which the schedules were drawn up made it possible also to determine the number of
dwellings as structural units. This number was therefore calculated
for certain towns as an accessory item of information, and the same
procedure was applied to the cases of several families living together
in one dwelling. When the 1920 federal census was taken, the dwelling,
as defined by the household occupying it, also served as the basic unit
for the statistics, but at the same time, a special heading was given to
cover the cases of several families living together in a single flat, that
is to say, the structural unit was used.

— •28 —
by a lease. According to circumstances this unit will obviously
tend to coincide sometimes with the structural unit, sometimes
with the social unit, without exactly corresponding to either.
For statistics of dwellings, this conception has the great disadvantage of restricting the investigation to leased premises
and to exclude all those occupied by their owners or left vacant*
unless these are dealt with by analogy or on the basis of expired
leases. It may be added that this system is seldom used for
statistics of dwellings \ It is, on the other hand, more useful»
and therefore more used, for rent statistics.
The choice between these various definitions of dwellings and
the different ways of making a compromise depend obviously
on the object of the statistics. This may be conceived in two
ways ; that of determining the existing supply of premises
equipped for habitation and their characteristics, with a view
to ascertaining how far it can meet the demand ; and that of
determining the supply of premises actually inhabited and their
characteristics, with a view to ascertaining the housing conditions offered by these premises. If the object in view is the
first, undoubtedly the idea of intended use must be employed,
while, on the contrary, if it is the second, it will have to be
principally the idea of actual use.
Apart from these theoretical considerations, however, certain
technical questions also arise. Thus, the definition of the dwelling as the premises occupied by a household seems often to have
been adopted because of its convenience in practice. Censuses
of dwellings are in fact generally undertaken on the occasion
of general population censuses, the data for which are usually
obtained on household returns. The household unit is therefore defined with care for the purposes of the general census,
and the demarcation of the dwelling unit follows automatically.
The definition of the dwelling as a structural unit, on the contrary, presents certain difficulties in practice which have often

1

Almost the only examples t h a t can be quoted are the housing enquiries undertaken every five years in Stockholm, where a dwelling is
defined as " t h e premises or groups of premises for habitation at t h e
disposal of any one person " {Statistics of the Municipality of Stockholm ;.
V, " Buildings and Dwellings " ; the Ninth General Housing Census
of Stockholm of 31 December 1915, New Series 3, Stockholm, 1917,
p. 16), and the Warsaw housing census of 1919, in which a dwelling wasdefined as " the whole set of rooms let directly to a principal t e n a n t "
(Results of the Census of Buildings and Dwellings in Warsaw in 1919 •„
Vol. II, " Statistics of Buildings ", p. 112).

— 29 —
led to the rejection of this system. The delimitation of a
dwelling solely on the basis of structural arrangements is, in
fact, a difficult and even arbitrary operation if the grouping of
the rooms is ill-defined. Now, it often happens that old houses,
more or less satisfactorily transformed, contain dwellings divided up among the different parts of the building. Even in modern
buildings the servants' rooms and box rooms are often in the
attics, the closets in the passages, and the laundry accommodation in the cellar or outbuildings. Moreover, these last two
types of rooms are often common to several flats. On the other
hand, if the definition of a dwelling is based on the premises
occupied by a household, all these cases are settled very simply
and in accordance with the existing situation, the number of
dwellings being taken to be equal to that of separate households.
Even this last method has its difficulties, however, and other
border-line cases are met with which are not so easy to solve.
In the first place, the exact determination of the household,
which is easy when it consists solely of a family, even including
more distant relatives, friends, or boarders, who share entirely
in the life of the family, becomes much more difficult if there
are more or less independent sub-tenants. There is, in fact, a
whole scale of possible systems, from the complete independence
of the sub-tenant to his complete participation in the domestic
life of his hosts, and the settlement of the intermediate cases is
always open to question. For instance, a sub-tenant who does
not board with the family, but whose room is looked after by
one of the members of the household with whom he lodges, may
be treated either as a partial boarder and therefore included
with the household, or as an independent sub-tenant whose
room is looked after by a charwoman.
In practice, however, it cannot be said that any of these
difficulties are really insurmountable. If, therefore, it is proposed to establish standards for dwelling statistics which may
be accepted by all countries and yet allow of precise international comparison, it is neccessary to draw up a definition
which will cover both conceptions and satisfy both the objects
referred to above without sacrificing one to the other. Within
the covering definition or framework so obtained, national
statistics will then be fitted so far as it is considered necessary
to develop them with a view to meeting each of the two ends.
Thus, a very general definition must be adopted for the dwelling, based on the ideas of both intended and actual use, after

— 30 —
which, if necessary, various distinctions may be made according to one or other of these criteria.
A dwelling will, therefore, be taken to mean any premises
intended for occupation by a household or used for this purpose. But to prevent contradiction between these two conceptions, for instance, in the case of a dwelling shared by several
households, it seems essential that one conception should
take precedence of the other. For present purposes, that of
intended use would appear preferable. The intended use of
any given premises reveals their permanent properties, whereas the actual use to which they are put is only a more or less
transitional state. Moreover, it should be observed that in
another branch of housing statistics, that of building activity,
the basic unit of the dwelling can only be defined according
to the intended use, for there may not have been any acutal
use ; and it is important that, so far as possible, the same
point of view should be adopted in determining the basic
units for the different branches of housing statistics.
On this principle the structural criteria usually adopted
to define the basic unit are : the existence of a separate entry
to t h e premises, either from the street or from a passage or

staircase open to the public, and the complete separation of
the premises from other neighbouring premises. These seem
satisfactory enough for acceptance as an international standard.
Yet these criteria are not completely adequate, for, as has
already been pointed out, the dwelling is not always a welldefined structural whole, and the strict application of the criterion of separate entry would mean that rooms separated
from the principal building would be considered as so many
distinct dwellings, an obviously absurd result. It may also
happen that premises originally intended for other than living
purposes are sometimes used more or less provisionally for
this purpose. As it is characteristic of most of these arrangements that they occupy only part of the structural unit, the
rest being used for its original purpose, structural criteria
cannot apply here. In both cases, therefore, it will be necessary to employ the idea of actual use and to define the dwelling
on this basis, that is to say, by the fact that it is occupied by
a household at the time of the enquiry.
To conclude, the definition of a dwelling may be given in
the following terms : a dwelling is in principle constituted by
a separate set of premises which, whatever their use, are

— 31 —
intended for the occupation of a household and have an independent entrance either from the street or from a passage or
staircase open to the public. Premises separated off from these
but clearly intended to form part of the dwelling will be included
with it. Premises not intended for living in, but used for
this, will be considered to have as many dwellings as there are
households occupying them.

CLASSIFICATION OF D W E L L I N G S

Classification according to Intended and Actual Use
The definition of a dwelling suggested here is obviously
very general, much more so than that accepted in most
statistics. A twofold distinction is therefore called for, according to the intended and actual use of the premises, and on
this basis certain large categories should be established, so as
to subdivide the general international framework. In countries
where so wide a definition of dwellings as that proposed here
cannot yet be accepted, the statistics will only leave out one
or two of these categories, while dealing fully with the rest ;
so that for these at least there will be a possibility of exact
comparison.
Further, this classification will make it possible to compare
the actual use made of the premises with their original purpose, and information of this kind will be of great value in
determining how far the existing supply of dwellings meets the
needs of the population.
The following classification may therefore be suggested ; its
elements, it may be added, already exist in several countries.
A first distinction will be made according to the intended use
of the premises, those intended for habitation being separated
from those originally intended for other purposes. In the
first group account will then be taken of the nature of the
household for which the dwelling is intended, and two classes
may be distinguished — dwellings intended for family habitation and those intended for other than family habitation.
These distinctions, it should be observed, would be made only
on the basis of purely structural criteria, the arrangement and
equipment of the premises. The operation will no doubt

. — 32• —
prove difficult at times, but it does not seem impossible. Premises not intended for living in are characterised, in fact, by
the absence of the criteria indicating those intended for habitation. The principal features of dwellings intended for other
than family groups are first their size, then the presence of
relatively large common rooms (refectories, dormitories, recreation rooms, workrooms, etc.), combined, as the case may be,
with the existence of a large number of small rooms equipped
for one or more persons.
These three main classes, divided according to intended use,
may then be further subdivided according to actual use, the
first distinction made among the dwellings intended for families being between those entirely used for this purpose, those
used partly for this purpose and partly for other purposes,
those not used (i.e. vacant), those entirely used for other
purposes than living in, and those used for habitation by other
than family groups.
It will no doubt be difficult to determine this last class, for
it is sometimes not so easy to make a clear distinction between
families taking boarders and certain boarding-houses or the
living-in arrangements made by employers for their workers.
Certain rules ought, therefore, to be laid down for this purpose,
as was done, for instance, in the English 1921 census, in which
the dwellings of private families were taken to include all
those in which the number of boarders did not exceed the
number of members of the employer's or householder's family,
including private domestic servants.
Among the dwellings not intended for family habitation,
a distinction will simply be made between those used as such
and those left empty. Classes corresponding to those proposed for family dwellings might no doubt be defined, but the
cases would be too few for such a distinction to be of any interest. It should be added that in the group of dwellings for
other than family habitation any premises reserved for the
household of the manager should be counted separately, as
is done in certain countries, and should be included with family
dwellings properly so called. This operation is obviously somewhat difficult, but does not seem altogether impracticable.
Where premises intended for other purposes than habitation are used for living in, they will be classed simply according as they are used for family habitation or not.

— 33 —
To sum up, the following classes will be obtained :
(1) Dwellings intended for family habitation :
(a) used solely for this purpose ;
(b) used partly for this and partly for other purposes ;
(c) not used — i.e. v a c a n t ;
(rf) temporarily used for other purposes t h a n habitation (without
structural alteration) ;
(e) used for other t h a n family habitation.
(2) Dwellings intended for non-family habitation :
(/) used accordingly ;
(g) used for family habitation ;
(ft) not used — i.e. vacant.
(3) Premises not intended for habitation :
(i) b u t used for family habitation ;
(/) b u t used for other purposes than family habitation.

It will clearly depend on the object of the statistics how far
any further analysis of the data in any of these classes is carried.
Thus a study of the conditions of comfort and hygiene of dwellings may well be limited to premises actually used for habitation, for as a rule such an analysis is undertaken only to
discover the conditions in which the population actually lives.
It will, therefore, leave out of account vacant dwellings,
whether intended for family habitation or not, and dwellings used
for other purposes than habitation. Moreover, dwellings used
partly for living in and partly for other purposes may be treated
as smaller dwellings used altogether for living in, the rooms
used for working having been subtracted. Premises intended
for other purposes than habitation but used for living in
will be treated in the same way as other dwellings. Family
dwellings used for other than family groups will be counted
in the latter class. To sum up, in this case only two large
categories will be required : (1) occupied premises intended
or used for family habitation (covering categories (a), (b), (g)
and (i) in the previous classification), (2) occupied premises
intended or used for other than family habitation (covering
categories (e), (/) and (/)).
Classification according to Size
After these first and most important classifications, one of
the most fundamental characteristics of dwellings to be the
subject of statistical analysis is that of size, for the considerable
differences between them from this point of view are of

— 34 —

essential practical importance. In actual fact this classification
of dwellings by size dominates all dwelling statistics. It is to be
found also in all other housing statistics in which the basic
unit is the dwelling, but the manner in which it is carried out
still differs considerably, and it is desirable to remove these
differences as much as possible. It will be necessary, however,
to distinguish here between family dwellings and those occupied
by other than family groups, for the question of size is not
exactly the same in the two cases.
The simplest measure of the size of a family dwelling is the
number of rooms. All the rooms in a dwelling, however, cannot
be regarded as equivalent units for measuring its size, as they
differ considerably among themselves. A selection is therefore
necessary. It has been carried out in most countries, but the
criteria vary considerably.
Thus, following the example given by one of the first important housing enquiries, that made in Berlin in 1864, several
municipal statistics have for long used as a unit for measuring
the size of dwellings, the number of rooms that can be heated 1.
This method has several disadvantages, the chief of which is
t h a t the relative number of rooms which cannot be heated,

and are therefore not covered by the returns although actually
used for living in, varies from one region to another according
to climatic conditions and local customs. Moreover, the very
idea of a room which can be heated may be interpreted in different ways 2. This definition has gradually been abandoned 3.
In other countries the criterion adopted was that of minimum

1

For example, the municipal statistics of Germany and Switzerland.
Thus, in Germany, municipalities in northern districts counted as
rooms that can be heated those which actually have some means of
heating, but in Western and Southern Germany, where the tenant, and
not the landlord, provided the heating installation, this criterion could
not be allowed, for many tenants did not undertake the expense of
installing heating in all the rooms where this was possible. Accordingly,
the criterion adopted was that of the number of rooms in which a stove
could be installed without structural alterations.
3
In Germany, where the method was most widely used, the Association of German Municipal Statisticians recommended at its twentyfourth Conference, held in 1909, that dwellings should be classified
according to the number of living-rooms (Wohnräume), distinguishing
between three classes : rooms which can be heated, rooms which cannot
be heated, and kitchens. The distinction between rooms which can
and cannot be heated was subsequently dropped altogether, and in
1927 the definition of a living-room was made on an entirely different
basis (see below).
2

— 35
size, taking as a standard either the space needed to contain
a bed for an adult ' o r a certain clearly defined surface 2.
The too strict application of this criterion has the disadvantage, however, of including among living-rooms certain
fairly cramped premises, such as alcoves, as well as those not
used for living in or only in a subsidiary sense, such as laundry
accommodation, corridors, box-rooms, warehouses, pantries, etc.
This latter disadvantage, it is true, is usually avoided in practice by the express stipulation that certain types of rooms
shall not be counted as living-rooms.
Yet another criterion which has been adopted in certain
cases is that of the existence of a window. This method
suffers from the opposite disadvantage to the last, for it definitely excludes alcoves and partitions without windows. In
addition, it entails a risk of counting subsidiary rooms under
the same head as the principal living-rooms.
In other cases, finally, the types of rooms to be counted
are merely enumerated with reference to their intended or
actual use, but no definite criterion is given, or, if so, it is only
to settle doubtful cases 3.
From the international point of view, it seems that this last
conception should be preferred, for the adoption of very definite
criteria is hardly possible, as the significance of each will vary
1
Thus, in the French censuses : " A room will be deemed to be any
division of a house, intended for living in, and separated from the rest
by partitions reaching to the ceiling, and capable of holding a bed for
an adult (including t h e kitchen, hall, and dressing rooms large enough
to contain a bed, servants' rooms, even if separated from the dwelling,
b u t not closets ; excluding shops, workshops, stables, etc., unless one
or more persons usually spend the night there) " (Resultats statistiques
du recensement général de la population effectuée le 4 mars 1906, Vol. I,
P a r t I, p. 23).
The procedure followed for the enquiry of the Union of Statistical
Offices of the Italian Municipalities in 1921 was similar. " A livingroom will be deemed to be any space, whatever the use made of it,
which can contain a bed (except the rooms specified in detail)" (Bollettino
dell' Unione statistica delle città italiane, Eighth Year, Nos. 2-4).
2
In the statistics for the municipality of Amsterdam, any enclosed
space of not less t h a n four square metres is considered to be a room.
3
The German census of 1927 offers one of the best examples of this
method : " Living-rooms must be taken to include all rooms, whether
they can be heated or not, intended for lasting occupation by persons
(whether for living or sleeping in), regardless of whether they were used
for living or sleeping in on the date of the census or not. The following
must not be included as living-rooms : the kitchen, the bath-room
(unless it is used for living in), wardrobes, pantries, alcoves, passages,
box-rooms, and every place in which at least one bed for an adult cannot
be p u t " (official census form).

— 36 —

from one country to another owing to differences in local customs and climatic conditions. It therefore seems preferable
to consider primarily the intended use of the premises, and
to count as units for measuring the size of the dwelling only
living-rooms properly so called — that is to say, those intended
actually for living in, such as bedrooms, dining-rooms and
living-rooms in the restricted sense. This method seems clear,
but certain rooms raise difficulties of interpretation.
The kitchen is a particularly difficult case in point, for the
character of this room differs widely according to the region,
the social class for which the dwelling is intended, and even
the date at which it was constructed. Sometimes it contains
only the equipment needed for preparing food and for household work, sometimes it serves as a general room, a diningroom, a bedroom for the servants or members of the family.
The practice of the different countries differs accordingly as
well. In some cases the kitchen is included with the livingrooms 1. In others it is counted separately under a special
heading 2 (although, in point of fact, there does not seem to be
any particular connection between the method adopted and
the degree of specialisation of this room). In some cases,
finally, the rather important distinction is made between
dwellings with a kitchen of their own and those with only a
kitchen common to several. The best method would no doubt
be to distinguish systematically between kitchens used exclusively as such and those used partly for living in, but it seems
impossible to carry out this demarcation adequately in practice.
It is, therefore, probably better always to take the kitchen into
account as a unit of size, but always to place it under a separate
heading, owing to its special importance and nature. This
gives the further advantage of allowing a distinction to be made
between dwellings with a kitchen and those without.
Among other rooms whose inclusion with living-rooms is
open to question, reference should also be made to servants'
rooms and attics, which in practice are sometimes counted as
1

For example, the national censuses of France, 1911, Great Britain,
1921, Belgium, 1920 ; the enquiry of the Union of Statistical Offices
of the Italian Municipalities, 1921 ; and the municipal census of Warsaw,
1919.
2
National censuses of Austria, 1910, Norway, 1920, and Switzerland,
1920 ; municipal censuses of Stockholm, 1910-1920, Prague, 1920, and
most German and Swiss towns.

— 37 —
living-rooms, sometimes as secondary rooms, and sometimes
left out of the statistics altogether"1. It seems, however, that
from the international point of view it would be better to
include them whenever they are really habitable. Even though
they are not of the same value as other living-rooms, the error
in this case seems less serious than if they are left out altogether.
On the other hand, alcoves, lobbies, and rooms intended for
other particular purposes (bath-rooms, closets, laundries, etc.)
should not be counted as living-rooms.
Even with an exact and uniform definition of a living-room,
such as that suggested above, the problem of measuring the
size of a dwelling is not solved altogether, for a living-room is
in itself no more than an imperfect unit of measurement. On
the one, hand, this system leaves entirely out of account all
subsidiary rooms, whose existence may yet sensibly affect the
capacity of the dwelling, and, on the other hand, it includes
under the head of living-rooms, rooms which may differ widely
between themselves as regards size, conditions of ventilation,
and equipment. An attempt has therefore been made in
several countries to meet this difficulty by carrying the statistical analysis of dwellings somewhat further than a simple
classification by the number of living-rooms.
In the first place an attempt is made to extend the investigation to the more important subsidiary rooms : closets, bathrooms, laundries, pantries, lobbies, as also servants' rooms and
attics (if the latter are not included with living-rooms). It is
true that this involves complicating the enquiry forms by. a
large number of supplementary questions, and that if it is
subsequently desired to classify these dwellings with reference
to the existence or absence of each of these various subsidiary
rooms, it will be necessary to multiply the classes of dwelling
to an extent which means a considerable increase in the work
involved, besides making the tables difficult to read.
This distinction between the different subsidiary rooms is
not absolutely indispensable, however, if they are only considered as a means of measuring the size of the dwelling. In
1
Reference may be made, for instance, to the French census of 1911,
and that of Prague, 1921, in which servants' rooms were counted as
living-rooms, and the Belgian census, 1920, and to some extent the
Swiss census of 1920, in which attics were also counted as living-rooms.
It may be added that in several cases no special mention is made of
these rooms, so that it is not certain what procedure is actually adopted.

— 38 —
countries where it is not desired to study in greater detail the
comfort provided by dwellings, it will therefore be sufficient to
select a certain number of subsidiary rooms of particular importance from the point of view of the size of the dwelling, and
to count them without special reference to their particular
characteristics. Such a selection would refer in the first place
to rooms intended for special purposes (closets, bath-rooms,
laundries), then to those which, owing to the absence of means
of ventilation (alcoves, lobbies, box-rooms), cannot be counted
as living-rooms, with perhaps a limitation based on size (here
the criterion of a bed for an adult might be used). The dwellings would then be classified not only by the number of livingrooms, but also by that of subsidiary rooms. Perhaps it would
also be advisable to reduce these two definitions to a common
measure. Thus, a subsidiary room might be counted as a
fraction of a living-room, either on a standard basis—for instance,
one-half •— fixed arbitrarily for all subsidiary rooms, or on a
scale based on definite criteria.
In other cases the study of the size of dwellings has been
carried much further, and various measurements have even
been taken on the spot with a view to determining their exact
area, or rather the volume of the whole dwelling, or of the
living-rooms only, or even of the rooms used for sleeping in.
Enquiries of this kind were undertaken, particularly before the
war, in certain Austrian, German, Scandinavian, and Swiss
towns, but since then they have been continued on a much
smaller scale, owing to their very burdensome nature 1. They
would be worth resuming, however, for they alone allow of a
really exact view of the size of a dwelling. Here the method
of sampling might be used with advantage. There are, in fact,
in different regions, according to the date at which the building was constructed and to the social class of the persons for
whom it is intended, certain current types of size, which might
be determined at no great expense on the sampling system.
Once these types were determined, the interpretation of the
data on the number of rooms in dwellings could be carried out
much more certainly.
1

The work of measuring the different rooms in dwellings is in fact
«onsiderable, and can be entrusted only to persons specially trained for
this purpose. The experience gained at Nuremberg in 1907, for instance,
showed that, to obtain a detailed measurement and description of the
rooms, it had to be reckoned that two investigators (one technical
expert and one secretary) could examine only 25 dwellings a day.

— 39 —
The whole question of determining the size of dwellings by
the number of their rooms is somewhat different in the case
of those used for other than family groups. Here, the room
is not so satisfactory a unit of measurement as for family d wellings, for, in addition to living-rooms of ordinary size, there are
much larger halls (dormitories, refectories, common workrooms) which can hardly be treated as ordinary rooms. In fact
this is one of the characteristics of this type of building. A
systematic distinction between the two types of premises and
the adoption for this purpose of criteria of demarcation are
therefore needed. Hitherto, however, this question has not been
carried very far, for these collective dwellings have not attracted
much attention among statisticians, and have seldom been
made the subject of detailed analysis.

Classification according to Other Criteria
A statistical analysis of dwellings may also refer to other
characteristics than that of size. Such an analysis will be
carried out to fulfil the second object of statistics, that of
studying the conditions in premises actually occupied, and
will therefore be divided into the two principal categories
established for this purpose : dwellings intended or actually used
for family habitation, and those intended or actually used for
habitation by other than family groups.
The analysis is, as a rule, of a summary kind for dwellings
in the second category (unless these are treated at the same
time as family dwellings, in which case they will not appear
under a special heading). At the most it is sought to classify
them according to their nature, which varies fundamentally.
Moreover, this classification follows directly from that adopted
for the statistics of buildings, and may relate, for instance, to
the following classes : hotels and boarding-houses, almshouses
and the like, hospitals and nursing homes, educational institutions, religious institutions, barracks, prisons.
Dwellings intended or actually used for family habitation, on
the contrary, are frequently analysed from the point of view
of hygiene, comfort, and convenience, and several criteria have
been chosen for this purpose. One of the most significant is
the existence of certain subsidiary rooms. For that purpose
it is no longer sufficient to count up indifferently the various

— 40 —

subsidiary rooms in each dwelling, as was suggested for the
study of the size of the dwellings, but the existence of particular
rooms will have to be specified exactly. This has, however,
the disadvantage already mentioned of encumbering the census
forms and complicating the classification, for the number of
classes may become excessive. The method has, therefore,
been adopted only with caution, and is limited as a rule to
certain more characteristic rooms, i.e. closets and bath-rooms ;
in some cases it is stated whether the use of these rooms is
confined to one dwelling or is common to several. As regards
closets, sanitary experts propose a distinction between those
flushed with water and those connected with a system of sewer
mains.
On these lines dwellings are sometimes also classified according to their domestic equipment ; means of heating and lighting,
installation of running water, means of ventilation (number of
windows per room).
A question which is given much more attention is that of
the position of the dwelling in the building or with respect to
the street. Obviously the manner of dealing with this problem
will differ with the type of construction most usual in the
region. If small, low houses predominate, dwellings will be
classified according as they are to be found in houses with one
or several households, and sometimes account will also be taken
of whether they adjoin a garden. If buildings with several
flats are more usual, dwellings will be classified according to
the story. If such buildings are constructed in large blocks, a
distinction will also be made between the dwellings facing the
street, those facing side-streets and those facing the courtyard
at the back.
Another feature sometimes taken into account is that of the
judicial relation between the dwellings and their occupants ; a
distinction is generally made between rented dwellings, the
owner's own dwelling, service dwellings, and those occupied
free of charge. In the group of rented dwellings, it would also
be useful to separate those let furnished, as well as the parts of
the dwellings or isolated rooms sublet by the principal tenant.
All these various data are certainly of great interest, for they
give some measure of the standard of hygiene, comfort and
convenience of the dwellings. But their collection on the occasion of a census is a very heavy burden, which the authorities
may hesitate to undertake. Here, too, it seems that they

— 41 —

might be obtained with sufficient precision by the method of
sampling, which means a great economy in work and costs.
The regular collection of such information would thus be possible without burdening the budgets of statistical services which
are always comparatively small.
It would thus appear that for statistics of dwellings recourse
should not be had only to the census method, as is very generally
the case, but that it would be preferable to limit the collection
of the data by this method to questions on which it is important
to have altogether exact information, and to use the method of
sampling for the study of all other more or less secondary
questions. On this system the census would therefore be limited
to enumerating dwellings and classifying them, first according
to their intended and actual use, and then according to the
size (measured by the number of living-rooms, and, if need be,
of certain subsidiary rooms). On the occasion of the census a
partial enquiry on the sampling method would be undertaken,
which would, in the first place, supplement the information on
the size of the dwellings by determining the types of size of
different living-rooms, and, secondly, determine the standards
of health and comfort of the dwellings by examining the types
of the various subsidiary rooms, the equipment of the premises,
the position of the dwelling in the building and with respect to
the street, the neighbourhood of gardens, etc.

CHAPTER

III

STATISTICS OF BUILDINGS WITH DWELLINGS AND OF
REGISTERED PROPERTIES WITH DWELLINGS

STATISTICS OF B U I L D I N G S W I T H

DWELLINGS

As a dwelling is conditioned structurally by the building in
which it is placed, the characteristics of that building necessarily
help to determine those of the dwelling. These points may
be studied by means of the statistics of buildings with dwellings.
Moreover, if in a district the most ordinary type of building is
that of the one-family house, the building may be assimilated
with the dwelling itself, and to some extent the statistics of
buildings with dwellings will give the same information as that
to be obtained from the statistics of dwellings. For these two
reasons housing statistics are usually made to include statistics
of buildings with dwellings, which from other points of view
belong more to the field of town-planning than that of housing
policy.
The statistics of buildings with dwellings are, moreover,
technically related to those of dwellings ; for the source of the
information on buildings, that is to say, the owners of the
buildings, is the same as that used for obtaining certain information on the dwellings. It is therefore expedient to combine
the two operations, and as a rule a single form is used.
Most countries with statistics of dwellings also compile
statistics of buildings. In certain cases even, the latter were
compiled on a national basis before the former, as a record of
buildings with dwellings was made by the officers engaged in
taking a general census of the population. This was the case
before the war, for instance, in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, as also in the United States of America,

— 43 —

Canada and India. And in the three latter countries the position has remained unchanged since the war as well 1.
It should be remembered that the statistics of buildings with
dwellings form only a part of the statistics of buildings, which
cover all existing buildings. But as this is the part which alone
belongs to housing statistics, it is all that has to be considered
here. It has been thought necessary to make this distinction,
which is in point of fact very generally practised. Many investigations are limited to buildings with dwellings, and those
which cover all constructions make a definite separation
between the two types of buildings.
Definition of Buildings with Dwellings
The statistics of buildings with dwellings consist essentially
in the enumeration of such buildings and their classification
according to certain characteristics. It is generally agreed that
a building is to be considered any covered construction, whether
isolated or separated from others by party-walls reaching from
the foundations to the roof. On this point hardly any difficulties arise, but the distinction between buildings with dwellings and the rest is rather more delicate.
As for the statistics of dwellings, use may be had of two
different criteria — those of the intended and of the actual use
of the buildings. The first of these criteria meets with practical
difficulties, for it is not always clear for what a building was
intended. There can obviously be no doubt in the case of
buildings intended solely for habitation, nor even in that of
mixed buildings in which dwellings occupy a comparatively
important place. The position is less obvious for business
premises (offices, shops, warehouses, factories) in which some
rooms have been reserved for the occupation of a caretaker,
and may easily be passed over, especially if they are temporarily
vacant. Moreover, the criterion of intended use, taken by
itself, will completely exclude all buildings which, although
intended for other purposes, are actually used more or less
1
As regards India, however, a» attempt is being made gradually to
substitute the census of dwellings for that of buildings, the dwelling
being defined on the social principle of the premises occupied by a
householder. This substitution is being made gradually in the different
provinces according to local possibilities, so that at present the existing
»data are of a hybrid nature.

— 44 —

provisionally for living in, without any structural alteration in
the building having been made. In consequence of these difficulties, the figures relating to mixed buildings are often accompanied by reservations as to their exactitude. In some, cases an
attempt has even been made to determine what the consequent
error may be 1 .
On the other hand, if only the other criterion, that of actual
use, is employed, the contrary disadvantages arise. Buildings
intended for habitation, but temporarily vacant or used for
other purposes, will be left out of the statistics. Such cases
occur in particular when one-family houses are left empty, or
when all the flats in a block are used for offices, shops, etc.
It therefore seems advisable to adopt the same procedure as
that decided on for the definition of dwellings, namely, t o
accept both criteria of intended and actual use, making them
supplement each other. Buildings with dwellings may thus be
taken to be any buildings intended wholly or partly for habitation, or actually used for this purpose.
It may be added that there are also certain types of habitations which hardly correspond to the idea of a building. This
applies to temporary constructions (huts, tents, etc.), vehicles
1
Thus, in the census for the municipality of Basle of 1920, a brief
calculation was made, which seems sufficiently interesting to summarise
here. The method was as follows : to the number of dwelling houses
enumerated in 1910 was added the number of those constructed in
1910-1920, while the number of those demolished during t h a t period
was deducted. The result thus obtained should have agreed with t h e
n u m b e r of houses enumerated in 1920. In actual fact a slight difference was recorded, more marked in the rural districts, as will appear
from the figures below :

N u m b e r of dwelling
h o u s e s in 1920

Basle Town
Kural districts . . .
Total

Difference

Census figure

Calculated
figure

Absolute
figure

11,167

il,266

99

0.9

537

548

11

2.7

11,704

U,814

110

1.0

Percentage

This calculation shows not the error made in one or other of the
censuses, but the combined errors of both. Even so, the figures are
quite significant. It should be added t h a t the check is only of value
if the data concerning the construction and demolition of buildings are
more reliable t h a n the census data, which seems admissible, given t h e
average size of the town of Basle and the excellence of its municipal,
services.

— 45 —
and boats (wagons, caravans, ships, barges, etc.). These types
of construction are seldom included in statistics of buildings l ,
and even when they are they are usually enumerated separately.
As they are few in number, however, except in certain oversea
countries, their absence involves no serious omission.
Classification of Buildings with Dwellings
The importance of the building from the point of view of
housing problems rests in the fact that it brings under one roof
the various premises used for occupation by households, or for
economic or social activities. The first object of a statistical
analysis will, therefore, be to bring out the manner in which
this grouping actually takes effect in the various buildings.
For this purpose the degree of independence offered by the
building to the different households occupying it will be examined,
a distinction being made between family households and those
not of a family nature. At the same time the relative importance in the building of the premises used for living in and those
used for other purposes will be taken into consideration.
These questions may and are approached by means of fairly
different systems of classification 2, which yield however much
1
Reference may, however, be made to the German census of 1910,
t h e Dutch of 1907, the Australian of 1911 and 1921, and the American
censuses of 1910 and 1920, in which habitations of this kind were also
enumerated.
2
Thus, in the Austrian census of 1910, a distinction was made between
t h e buildings intended exclusively for habitation, those intended principally for habitation and subsidiarily for other purposes, and those
intended subsidiarily for habitation and principally for other purposes.
In the last two classes a further subdivision into seven categories was
made according to t h e intended use of the premises not reserved for
habitation : agriculture and forestry ; industry, commerce, or a profession ; administration and similar activity ; and various combinations
of these three principal groups.
In the English census of 1921, a separation was first made between
buildings containing dwellings from those containing none, and the
former group was then subdivided into five : undivided private houses ;
structurally divided private houses ; blocks of flats, tenements, etc. ;
shops ; others, under which head separate mention was made of (1)
offices, factories, warehouses, workshops, (2) hotels, (3) institutions,
(4) places of worship, and (5) places of amusement.
In the Berlin census of 1910, a distinction was first made between
inhabited and uninhabited buildings, and then each of these two large
groups was subdivided into forty-four classes, the first of which consisted
of buildings intended solely or principally for family habitation, the
following seven of buildings intended for various forms of habitation
b y other t h a n family groups, and the other thirty-six of all the various
forms of buildings intended for the economic and social activities of the
population.

— 46 —

the same results. From the international point of view, therefore, a very strict classification does not seem called for, and
it will be sufficient to determine which data are the most
important to obtain.
It must be possible to distinguish first of all between the
buildings intended solely for habitation, those of which only
a part, although a relatively important part, is used for this
purpose, and finally those in which only a small part has been
equipped, with a view to housing a caretaker for instance.
The separation of this third group seems useful enough, although
it is not always made, for in this latter case the characteristics
of the building are much less important from the point of view
of determining those of the dwelling itself than when the
building is mainly used for habitation.
For mixed buildings, i.e. those of which only part is used for
living in, whether this is the principal part or not, it is also
interesting to determine for what purpose the part not lived
in is intended. The classification to be used must obviously
be based on that used for buildings entirely devoted to the
social and economic activities of the population.
Further, among buildings used entirely or principally for
habitation, it is necessary to distinguish whether they are intended for family households or other than family groups, for
the analysis to which they are subjected will differ in the two
cases. Buildings for other than family habitation may be
classified according to the nature of the community for which
they are intended, and therefore the same large groups as those
already suggested for the classification of non-family dwellings
should be used 1. Buildings intended for family occupation
should be classified first according to the number of dwellings
they contain. In many cases, it is true, it is considered sufficient to distinguish between houses for one or two families and
those with several flats. It would be worth while, however,
making a more detailed classification, especially as this presents
no difficulties, the building census usually being connected
with that of dwellings. Moreover, as dwellings differ largely
in size, there would be every advantage in supplementing this
classification by combining it with another based on the number
of rooms in the buildings. In this way it would be possible to
estimate exactly the capacity of the building as well as the
1

See Chapter II, p. 39.

— 47 —

number of dwellings into which it is divided. This method
should be developed more than it actually is 1, because of the
interest attaching to it.
Most building censuses include a statistical analysis of certain
structural characteristics, though as yet it is far from being
conducted on more or less uniform lines. The question of the
materials of which the buildings are constructed has been dealt
with in certain countries, though in fairly different ways. In
some cases account is taken of all building materials, and a
distinction is made between buildings of wood, stone, brick or
several materials 2. In other cases the only feature taken into
account is the material of the outside walls 3, or of the roof 4.
Data concerning the number of stories in the building are
more usual and also more comparable, but certain borderline
cases may be interpreted in different ways. At what point is
a story to be regarded as the basement rather than the ground
floor ? What is the exact limit separating off the attics ?
These points must be defined very carefully if the figures
published are to be properly interpreted.
Some countries supply certain other information on the
structural arrangements of buildings. Thus they may be
divided into the principal block and outhouses 5 , or the principal
building may be distinguished from the adjacent secondary

1
Data concerning the number of rooms in buildings are to be found,
for instance, in the Austrian census of 1910, the Bulgarian census of
1920, and the Stockholm censuses of 1910-1920.
2
Thus, in the Norwegian census of 1920, a distinction was made
between wooden buildings and buildings of mixed materials ; in the
Warsaw census of 1919, between wooden buildings and those of stone
and brick ; in the Christiania (Oslo) census of 1920, three classes of
buildings were defined, those of wood, brick and other materials
(together with one heading " particulars not stated " ) .
3
This classification is to be found in particular in the Australian
censuses of 1911 and 1921, and those of the Union of South Africa of
1911 and 1921, in which a distinction was made between fourteen and
ten different classes respectively ; stone, brick, concrete, wood, iron,
sun-dried brick, and other materials commonly used in these parts
were considered separately and in various combinations. It should
be added t h a t these classifications were applied to the dwellings themselves. As, however, in these countries the dwelling and the building
tend very much to coincide, it seems reasonable to quote these examples
here.
4
This classification is to be found, for instance, in the Austrian
census of 1910, which distinguished between seven classes, with reference
also to the existence or absence of a fire insurance policy.
5
The Norwegian censuses of 1910 and 1920.

— 48 —

buildings \ or else the position of the building may be defined
with respect to the street (buildings on the street, at the side,
or at the back) 2 . In other cases information is given on questions of internal arrangement — means of lighting (gas,
electricity) and heating (central heating), provision of a lift,
drinking-water, drains, closets ; neighbourhood of a garden or
court ; the existence of dwellings in the cellar or attics 3.
In actual fact these various data do not seem of the first
importance from the point of view of housing policy. Several
of the structural features in question have only a very indirect
influence on the actual dwellings, and their study belongs rather
to the field of town planning. Moreover, an analysis of the
internal arrangements of buildings seems more expedient in
connection with the statistics of dwellings, for these details are
of value particularly in so far as they illustrate the conditions
of comfort of the dwellings. Besides, several of these classifications are suitable only in certain countries, being the outcome
of specifically local conditions. It therefore seems unnecessary
to propose standards with respect to them for international
comparison. The question of excluding them entirely from
census forms might even be examined if, as has already been
proposed in connection with the statistics of dwellings, it were
decided to make supplementary enquiries by the method of
sampling for dealing with these points of detail.
It may be mentioned finally that in some cases buildings are
analysed also from a legal standpoint. They are classified
according as they are in individual ownership and non-individual
ownership and according to the manner in which the
property was acquired (purchase, inheritance, construction,
etc.) *.
1

Austrian census of 1920.
The principal censuses of German municipalities.
3
The German census of 1911 ; the Austrian census of 1910 ; the
Swedish censuses of 1910.and 1920 ; and that of Warsaw of 1919.
4
The Austrian census of 1910 is one of the best-known examples of
this type of analysis. The classification according to method of acquisition contains the following classes : construction, purchase, inheritance,
•other methods, methods unknown ; a distinction also being made between houses built before 1901 and those built after that date, so as to
bring out the changes that have taken place in the form of ownership
during the last ten years.
In the classification according to legal personality of the owner, a
distinction is first made between those who are individuals and those
who are not (e.g. societies, companies, institutions, etc.). In the first
2

— 49 —

STATISTICS OF REGISTERED PROPERTIES COMPRISING BUILDINGS
WITH DWELLINGS

In some countries statistics of registered properties are to be
found side by side with the statistics of buildings, being in some
measure connected with the latter. This applies, for instance,
to the censuses taken in various German, Swiss, Swedish, Norwegian, and Polish towns. The fact is that in these countries
the property registers offer the best means of reaching all owners
of real estate, and it is therefore obvious that they should be
used for building censuses. A form is therefore provided for
each registered property and not for each building, and the
enumeration of the buildings on them is obtained by examining
these returns, thus making it possible to compile statistics of
buildings properly so called. In certain cases, however, the
registered properties themselves are analysed, being considered
to form the basic units. As a rule, such statistics are limited
to sites already built on, but sometimes they also cover those
which have not yet been built on. There is no need to consider
in detail the definition of the basic unit, the registered property,
as this depends directly on the legal definition adopted in the
country in question. Among the different registered properties,
however, it would be necessary to distinguish those comprising
buildings with dwellings, the only ones to be taken into account
here. This distinction will be made as a matter of course if the
criterion taken is the existence on the site of a building with
dwellings, and if the latter is defined as suggested. In some
cases, however, only the principle of actual use is adopted, the
properties being classified according as they are actually inhabited or not. Any consequent differences in the nature of
the data are of comparatively little importance from the point
of view of housing problems however, considering the type of
information usually expected from these statistics.
group those who are sole owners are separated from those who are coproprietors, the cases in which the property is shared between husband
and wife being distinguished separately in the latter group. Owners
are also classified according to occupation, a distinction being made
between four large groups (agriculture and forestry ; industry, commerce
and transport : public administration, liberal professions ; no occupation),
each of them being separated up into independent and paid workers.
The group of owners who are not individual persons is divided into
seven categories : companies run for profit ; religious bodies ; foundations ; municipalities ; provinces ; the State ; miscellaneous.

— 50 —
The point is that the registered property is a legal unit, and
that consequently statistics of these properties are useful mainly
for studying the legal aspects of housing problems. They therefore serve principally to study the forms of ownership of, and
methods of acquiring, the sites on which buildings with dwellings are placed, and therefore indirectly of the dwellings themselves. These problems, it is true, are also approached in the
statistics of buildings, as already indicated. The systems of
classification used are therefore similar to those already discussed, although often conceived on somewhat different lines 1In the statistics of built-on registered properties, a classification of the number of buildings and even of the dwellings on
the site is fairly general. Some enquiries even go so far as to
analyse certain structural characteristics of the building, but
this study seems more appropriate to that of the statistics of
buildings.

1
Thus, the Berlin census oí 1910 subdivided the methods of acquisition into eight classes : purchase, exchange, sale by auction, endowment,
inheritance, combinations of different methods, miscellaneous, method
unknown. As regards classification according to the nature of the
proprietor, those who were physical persons were divided into two
groups — persons of whom at least one lived in the building, and those
who did not live there ; the latter were again subdivided according to
their place of residence, whether • inside or outside the town. The
analysis also covered the occupation of the owners, no fewer than twentythree industrial classes being distinguished. It was combined, moreover,
with information on the period of their ownership rights.

CHAPTER IV
STATISTICS OF HOUSING CONDITIONS

The statistics of dwellings and of buildings with dwellings
examined in the two preceding chapters are based solely on
technical units. The object was to bring out with as much
detail as possible the different characteristics of dwellings and
buildings, without making any attempt to determine the manner in which they are used by their occupants and the consequent
housing conditions of the latter. The latter problems belong
to the field of statistics of housing conditions. For this purpose
use is made of the data obtained from the statistics of dwellings
and to a less extent of those obtained from the statistics of
buildings, while at the same time new factors are introduced
concerning the persons and households occupying such dwellings
or buildings. Systems of classification are. prepared according
to the particular features of these new factors, and the relations
between them all are established.
The statistics of housing conditions are therefore technically
connected with those of dwellings and buildings, and as a rule
they are compiled at the same time. They are to be found in
most countries where the first two sets of statistics have alreads
been stated to exist.
Another source of data on housing lies in the special enquiries
undertaken in several countries for studying the conditions of
life of the workers, in which housing conditions are the subject
of special investigation. Examples of such enquiries are to be

— 52 —
found particularly in Austria \ the United States 2, France 3,
Italy *, and Sweden 5. Most of them date from the last few
years of the nineteenth century or from the first ten of the
twentieth, a period during which the study of working-class
conditions in this particular form was much to the fore. Comparatively recent data are to be found for Far-Eastern countries,
particularly Japan 6 , where they still form one of the only
sources of information on housing questions. The results obtained from these investigations are usually limited to certain
quarters of the town or a particular group of workers. Moreover,
they are not based on all the dwellings affected but only on a
certain number of families chosen as typical.
The extent to which the study of housing conditions in
general censuses has developed varies somewhat. As a rule
the statistics are limited to family dwellings, and it is only
when the statistics of dwellings make no distinction between
1
Die Wohnungs- und Gesundheitsverhältnisse der Heimarbeiter in der
Kleider- und Wäschekonfektion,
K. K. ARBEITSSTATISTISCHES A M T
IM HANDELSMINISTERIUM, Vienna, 1901. Die Wohnungs- und Gesundheitsverhältnisse der Schuhmacher, K. K. ARBEITSSTATISTISCHES A M T
IM HANDELSMINISTERIUM, Vienna, 1906. Die Arbeitszeit
in Eisenhütten und Walzwerken, Bericht über die in der Zeit v o m 14. J u n i bis
14. August 1909 durchgeführte Erhebung, K. K. ARBEITSSTATISTISCHES
AMT IM HANDELSMINISTERIUM, Vienna, 1911. Die Lage der Wächter
der K. K. Staatsbahnen, auf Grund einer Erhebung des K. K. Eisen-

bahnministeriums, K. K.

ARBEITSSTATISTISCHES

A M T IM H A N D E L S -

MINISTERIUM, Vienna, 1903. Die gemeinnützigen
Kleinwohnungsanlagen in den im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreichen und Ländern, nach den
Ergebnissen der Erhebung vom 17. April 1909, auf Veranlassung und m i t
Unterstützung des K. K. Ministeriums für öffentliche Arbeiten bearbeitet u n d zusammengestellt von dem BUREAU DER K. K. STATISTISCHEN

ZENTRALKOMMISSION, Brunn, 1910. Statistik der hauszinssteuerpflichtigen Wohnungen nach dem Stande vom Jahre 1908, Beilage I zu Heft I
der Mitteilungen des K. K. Finanzministeriums, Vol. X V I , 1910, Vienna,
1909.
2
The Slums of Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, 1894 ;
Seventh Special Report of t h e Commissioner of Labour.
Report
on Conditions of Women and Child Wage-Earners in the United States ;
Washington, 1911.
3
O F F I C E DU TRAVAIL : Enquête sur le travail à domicile dans l'industrie de la lingerie, Vols. I-V. Paris, 1907.
4
UFFICIO D E L LAVORO : Inchiesta sulle abitazioni degli
impiegati
d'ordine e subalterne in Roma e del personale ferroviaro in Roma e in
altre città d'Italia. Series B , No. 20. Rome, 1908.
5

SVERIGES OFFICIELI A STATISTIK : Undersókningar

ròrande de minare

bemedlades bostadsfórhallanden i vissa svenska städer, 1912. Stockholm,
1916-1918.
6
KYOCHO K A I (OF TOKYO) : Investigation on the Conditions of Living
of Salaried and Wage-Earning
Workers in November 1923. Jiji Yearbook, 1925, " Housing Conditions of t h e Workers of Yokosuka Arsenal " .
Rodo Tokei, Vol. I.

— .53 —
these and the dwellings of other than family groups that the
analysis of housing conditions also covers the latter.

DISTRIBUTION OF OCCUPANTS IN THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF
DWELLINGS AND BUILDINGS

The simplest operation in statistics of housing conditions is to
enumerate the occupants covered by the census and to classify
them according to the characteristics of the dwellings or
buildings they occupy. This involves, however, the adoption
of a new basic unit — the occupant — - which must be defined.
The definition may be based on one of two different conceptions. It may either keep to the actual situation on the day
of the census, and regard as an occupant of a dwelling any person spending the night there on that date ; or else it may
consider the normal situation, and count as occupants only
those who ordinarily live in the dwelling. From the theoretical
standpoint, this latter conception has certain advantages, for
it leads to a more representative picture of the actual facts ;
but from the practical point of view it is more complicated, for
it means that when recording the occupants of a dwelling, any
person absent on the date of the census but ordinarily living
there should be included, while those temporarily there have to
be excluded 1.
The other method, which may have the advantage of simplicity, does not give as satisfactory results. It should be
stated, however, that the differences due to the fact that these
various persons are recorded away from their ordinary homes
are hardly noticed in the final totals, for the errors tend to
cancel each other out.
The classification of occupants according to the characteristics
of the dwellings they occupy makes it possible to determine
which section of the population enjoys the advantages of each
type of dwelling. It forms a direct complement to the data of
the statistics of dwellings, which bring out the proportion of
dwellings of different types in the total. The same criteria for
1
Thus the form for the German census of 1927 stipulated that persons would have to be counted as occupants if " they were temporarily
absent, but not those temporarily present ". The household form used
for the French census states that mention must be made of the number
of persons composing the household, " those present or absent, but not
those temporarily there ".

— 54 —
classification will therefore be used. The chief of these is the
size of the dwelling measured by the number of living-rooms,
including the kitchen and, as the case may be, by the number
of certain subsidiary rooms. Various other characteristics of
the dwellings may also be taken into account : use of subsidiary
rooms (bath-rooms, closets, laundry accommodation, etc.) and
domestic equipment (means of heating and lighting, installation
of running water, drains), proximity of a court or garden. It
seems, however, that for studying these various details the
method of sampling may with advantage be used rather than
that of the census, as already suggested for the examination of
these characteristics in the statistics of dwellings.
Similarly, the occupants may be classified according to the
characteristics of the buildings they occupy, but this operation
is rarely undertaken. In. some cases, however, the occupants
are classified according to the size of the building, in others a
distinction is made between the occupants of houses for one or
two families and those of houses with several flats.

D E N S I T Y OF OCCUPATION

Any further classification used in statistics of housing conditions will be based on the characteristics of the occupants
themselves and the groups they form. That most widely
adopted, because it is at once simple and significant, is based
on the number of persons living in one and the same dwelling.
In fact, the part it plays in the statistics of housing conditions
is similar to that of the classification based on the number of
rooms in the statistics of dwellings. In other words, any
further statistical analysis is carried out within this fundamental
classification.

The significance of the number of persons occupying a dwelling is not fully realised, until it is related to the size of the
dwelling occupied, in other words, the number of rooms. For
this purpose, a twofold classification is used, based on both
these criteria at once, which may be applied either to the persons
or to the dwellings. Two sets of double entry tables are accordingly prepared, one giving the number of families of 1,2,3, etc.,
persons living in dwellings of 1, 2, 3, etc., rooms, and the other

— 55 —
the number of dwellings of 1, 2, 3, etc., rooms occupied by 1,
2, 3, etc., persons.
The composition of these different classes varies somewhat
from one country to another. In some cases a very detailed
classification of all dwellings is given ; in others, it is limited
to small dwellings only (not over four or five rooms, and with
not more than five or six occupants), and all others are combined
in an additional class. In yet other cases, finally, only a few
classes are defined more or less arbitrarily, a distinction for
instance being made between small, average size, and large
dwellings. This rough grouping has no doubt the advantage
of bringing out general tendencies more clearly, but it has also
the disadvantage of concealing certain facts, and unless it is
carried out on uniform lines it makes international comparison
very difficult. From this point of view, therefore, it will be
preferable to maintain altogether detailed classifications.
With a view to bringing out more clearly the density of
occupation of the dwellings, it is often customary to calculate
also the ratio of the number of rooms to the number of occupants, thus obtaining a coefficient of density. The most usual
is that of the number of persons to a room. In some cases,
however ] , the inverse ratio has been preferred, i.e. the number
of rooms per occupant. This coefficient, in whichever way it
is calculated, serves for a double analysis. In the first place,
the dwellings or their occupants may be classified according to
their coefficient of density of occupation, and, secondly, the
average coefficients of density are calculated for dwellings of
different sizes or occupied by different numbers of persons.
Several countries have even gone further and introduced a
standard with a view to determining how many dwellings may
be considered to be overcrowded. For this purpose, Bertillon's
criterion has usually been adopted, according to which any
dwelling is considered overcrowded if it has more than two
persons per room. In some countries rather stricter or wider
criteria are preferred 2 ; in others, finally, a complete scale of
1

Census of England and Wales of 1921 ; French censuses of 19011911.
2
In Finland, for instance, for the census of 1919, only dwellings with
three or more persons per room were considered to be overcrowded, and
in Prague, for the 1921 census only those with over two persons per
room which could be heated.

— 56 —
density of occupation has been compiled, the various classes
being defined in a more or less arbitrary manner 1.
But these differences are not the most important from the
point of view of international comparison. Those arising out
of the definition of the terms " dwelling ", " room " and
" occupant " — and it has already been shown how many
there are — are much more serious. For it is clear that the
significance of the density of occupation depends fundamentally
on the meaning given to the units compared. Without returning to what has already been said on the subject of the standardisation of these various units 2, it is necessary, however, to
stress the importance here of the distinction already made
between living-rooms, kitchens, and subsidiary rooms, for in
most countries only the principal rooms are taken into account
in the study of the density of occupation. For the present
purpose, it is important also to include servants' rooms and
habitable attics, for the actual density of occupation of a dwelling would certainly be exaggerated if the person or persons
acting as domestic servants were to be counted among the
occupants, but the room or rooms they occupied were to be
excluded. The question may even arise whether in the calculation of density of occupation, subsidiary rooms should not
also be counted, such as bath-rooms, alcoves, or lobbies, as has
been done in some countries 3, for the density of occupation
1

In the French censuses of 1901-1911, dwellings with one or two
rooms per person were considered spacious and those with over two
persons per room overcrowded.
In the Copenhagen and Frederiksborg census of 1921, a distinction
was made between overcrowded dwellings, or those with over two
persons per room, and very overcrowded dwellings, with more than four
persons per room.
In Norway, the 1920 census fixed five classes : very spacious dwellings,
more than two rooms per occupant ; spacious dwellings, less than one
person per room ; crowded dwellings, more than one and less than two
persons per room ; overcrowded dwellings, more than two and less than
three persons per room ; very overcrowded dwellings, more than three
persons per room.
The "Warsaw census of 1919 also distinguished between five classes,
but the graduation was somewhat different : very large dwellings, more
than two rooms per occupant ; fairly large dwellings, more than one
room per occupant ; normal dwellings, one room per occupant ; inadequate dwellings, more than half a room and less than one room per
occupant ; overcrowded dwellings, less than half a room per occupant.
2
For the definition of a dwelling, see Chapter II, p. 31 ; for that of a
room, Chapter 11, pp. 34-35; and forthat of an occupant, Chapter IV, p. 53.
3
This method was adopted, for instance, in the Austrian census of
1910 and the Zurich census of the same year.

— 57 —
may be decidedly different if various subsidiary rooms are
available in the dwelling in addition to the living rooms. Perhaps
these subsidiary rooms should be counted at a reduced rate, for
instance, as equivalent to half a unit, as has already been
suggested for the study of the size of the dwelling.
With respect to occupants, no distinction is made as a rule
between different persons, who are all considered as units of the
same value. It is clear, however, that from the point of view
of density of occupation, the occupants must differ in importance according to age, sex, and the relations between them.
Thus, the degree of overcrowding of a dwelling of two rooms
occupied by four persons is much less if these persons are a
married couple and two children of the same sex or of tender
years, than if the children living with the parents are an adult
son and daughter. For a detailed study of the degree of overcrowding, these differences ought to be taken into account,
which would obviously involve establishing a scale similar to
that used for the consumption of individuals in the statistics of
family budgets, although it would be based on different criteria.
Even though this would be a difficult operation, it ought to be
examined.
A first step of not too much difficulty might be to distinguish
between three groups of persons : adults, children of between
four and fourteen to fifteen years of age, and those under four
years, counting the children as only a fraction of an adult person,
one-half or one-third, for instance.
Once an agreement has been reached on the definition of the
terms " dwelling ", " room ", and " occupant ", the manner
of establishing the different classes would have to be decided.
It would probably be best to give up any idea of fixing a standard, and to provide a sufficiently detailed classification to
allow of any form of analysis. Separate classes should therefore
be allotted to the different numbers of rooms of dwellings,
except perhaps for relatively high numbers, 8 rooms and 6
occupants, for instance, as here the number of cases is small, so
that they may without inconvenience be grouped under a single
heading.
In studying density of occupation, it is not enough to obtain
information on the degree of occupation of the different dwellings. Some account must also be taken of the extent to which
the groups of persons living in the dwellings are independent
of each other. This need not involve considering the size of

— 58 —
the building, i.e. the number of rooms it contains, as this
would to some extent overlap with the analysis of the density
of occupation of the dwellings. It is enough to determine the
total number of occupants in the building so as to ascertain
the number of persons living together in the same house. The
buildings will then be classified according to the number of
their occupants 1 , and the occupants by the number of occupants in the building. This operation presents no difficulties
if the census of buildings is combined with that of dwellings.
In some countries the average number of occupants per building is also determined 2. These figures, it should be observed,
may be obtained without counting the number of occupants
in each type of building, but simply by dividing the total
number of occupants in the locality by the number of buildings
with dwellings. If this figure of average density is to be truly
significant, it is preferable, however, to calculate it separately
for the different types of dwelling-houses (houses used exclusively, principally or subsidiarily for habitation on the one hand,
one- and two-family houses and houses with several flats on the
other). Otherwise the averages obtained may be altogether
fictitious. To obtain this result it is obvious that the number
of occupants per building have to be counted. But almost
equivalent data may be obtained by subdividing the area into
zones according to the principal type of building, and comparing
the number of occupants and buildings in each zone.
In certain cases, finally, the number of occupants per square
metre of habitable area in the whole of the urban aggregation
is also determined. These figures are obtained, not by measuring the premises on the spot, but by determining the superficial
area of the houses from the registered plans and multiplying
this figure by the number of stories. Such data can therefore be obtained only where the registered plans are prepared
with great accuracy, and, even so, they are always rather
approximate.
Data of the general density of occupation of the city, obtained
by dividing the total population by the total area, are also of
some interest. The significance of these figures varies some1
This classification is to be found, for instance, in the censuses for
the municipalities of Prague in 1921 and Warsaw in 1919.
8
National censuses of Germany, 1911, and Sweden, 1920 ; various
municipal censuses, particularly of Germany and Switzerland.

— 59 —
what, however, as they depend above all on the manner in
which the urban aggregation is delimited and the extent to
which the suburban or semi-rural surroundings are taken into
account. This type of data belongs more to the subject of town
planning than to housing statistics properly so called.
LIVING TOGETHER OF SEVERAL HOUSEHOLDS AND COMPOSITION
OF HOUSEHOLDS

Although the relations between the different persons living
together in the same dwelling have been given little consideration in the study of the density of occupation, they have not
altogether escaped statistical analysis. Thus, in several countries they are the subject of special classifications applied either
to the personal or to the dwelling units.
In Austria, for instance, a distinction is made between households with and without children, with and without other relatives, with and without domestic servants, with and without
sub-tenants and boarders. In Finland, the occupants are classified into five groups : members of the family properly so
called, relatives, domestic servants, boarders, and co-tenants,
and these groups are combined in various ways to bring out the
general tendencies. This form of classification has perhaps
been carried furthest in Berlin. The occupants of dwellings are
subdivided into six classes : members of the family, relatives,
employees, domestic servants, lodgers, and " night boarders ".
The class of members of the family is then combined in all
possible ways with the five other classes, thus giving no less
than thirty-two different groups \
These different systems of classification bring out very different kinds of relations : family relationship, relation of master
1
The combinations are
a r e distinguished :
(1) Members of the family
(2)
„
„
„
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)

as follows : First, the following eight cases
alone.
and employees.
relatives.
and
relatives and employees.
and domestic servants.
domestic servants and relatives.
domestic servants and employees.
domestic servants, relatives and employees.

Each of these eight groups is subdivided into the following four :
(a)
(b)
(c)
,(d)

without sub-tenants or boarders ;
with sub-tenants, but without boarders ;
without sub-tenants, but with boarders ;
with sub-tenants and with boarders.

— 60 —
to servant, of host to boarder, or the simple living together of
two independent households. From the point of view of housing policy, it seems that a definite distinction should be drawn
between this latter group and the rest, for they reveal an exceptional, and in some measure abnormal, situation, as the
dwelling is originally intended for a single household. It therefore appears preferable to consider the question of several
households living together in one and the same dwelling separately from that of the composition of the households.
At this stage of housing statistics, it is necessary to introduce
a new unit : the household. This has already been defined as
a group of persons with a common and independent domestic
organisation. Now it is necessary to determine where this
independence begins and ends.
The demarcation is comparatively obvious if the households
consist exclusively of members of the family, for then they are
defined by this very family relationship. The task becomes
much more difficult when there are boarders and lodgers, in
view of the whole range of systems possible. Two fundamental
types may, however, be distinguished. The first is that of the
person who shares in all or part of the domestic life of the
family, either he takes all or some of his meals with it, or he
has only one room or part of a room, which, however modest,
is looked after by the household with whom he lives. This
group will include " night boarders " (Schlafleute) and " hirers
of a bed " (Bettgeher), who will be considered to be members of
the household. The second type is that of persons who have
organised in the room or rooms they occupy a domestic life as
independent as the arrangement of the premises will allow, and
are therefore counted as an independent household. Often this
group is taken to cover only sub-tenants and co-tenants, that
is to say, persons who have secured the right to occupy part of
the dwelling by a sub-tenant's lease concluded with the principal tenant or by a separate lease concluded with the owner,
This distinction is no doubt of interest for the study of the legal
forms of leases of dwellings, but it does not seem absolutely
fundamental here. It would be more useful to distinguish so
far as possible here between persons not connected with the
family, but forming part of the household, and those who
remain completely independent.
The question of several households living together in the

— 61 —
same dwelling has fairly often been the subject of statistical
research. One of the most complete was probably that undertaken on the occasion of the Norwegian census of 1920, which
involved two distinct kinds of analysis. The first consisted in
determining the housing conditions of the various households
living together in one dwelling but considered them as independent units. For this purpose the number of living-rooms
occupied by each household were examined, as also the available
subsidiary rooms, the density of occupation, etc. The standard
of comfort of this particular group of households, which is
compelled to share their dwelling with other households, was
thus brought out and could be compared with that of the population as a whole. The second analysis consisted in comparing
the housing conditions of the households living in the same
dwelling, a distinction being made between the principal and
the subsidiary households. In this way it was found whether
one of the two households living together was worse housed
than the other.
As regards the composition of households, it seems that from
the point of view of housing problems it would be suitable to
distinguish between five classes, which is in fact the fairly
general practice. These are : members of the family, other
relatives and friends, domestic servants, employees, boarders.
Each of these chief groups might be further subdivided so far
as considered necessary for the study of demographical problems connected with the composition of households ; but this
question does not arise here.

HOUSING CONDITIONS OF DIFFERENT SOCIAL GROUPS

So far only the question of analysing the housing conditions
of the population as a whole has been considered, and the systems of classification examined have aimed only at determining
the different standards of housing and the number of persons
to whom these standards apply. It is also of value to relate
housing conditions to the different social classes of which the
population is composed, so as to determine the standards prevailing in each class. It is all the more important to bring out
this relation as housing is one of the fields in which the influence
of social class is most strongly felt.

— 62 —
The difficulty of this operation lies in the delimitation of the
different social classes.
It is based as a rule on the occupation
of the head of the household, or the industry in which he works,
and his occupational status. But the different systems of
classification adopted vary markedly from one country to
another.
The Netherlands census of 1911 established twenty-nine
industrial classes, distinguishing for each industry between
employers, salaried employees and wage-earners. The same
method was adopted for the Prague census of 1921, although
the number of industrial groups was only twenty. In Switzerland an occupational classification has been generally adopted.
The Zurich enquiry of 1910 comprised about forty classes,
which were then combined into three large groups, corresponding approximately to the well-to-do, the middle class, and the
workers K The census for the municipality of Berne has a
rather more detailed distribution by social classes 2 . In Italy
for the enquiry undertaken in 1921 by the Union of Municipal
Statistical Offices, provision was made for a classification into
eleven social classes, based on the declarations of the inhabitants as to their occupation and their occupational status 3 . In
Norway the social classification in the 1920 census was also
1
More exactly, the first class comprised independent workers in
different occupations, the owners of factories and their partners, directors, high officials, members of the liberal professions, and persons
without occupation ; the second class, employees with technical or
commercial training, the staff of administrative departments and the
official transport services ; the third, wage-earners, shop assistants,
hotel and restaurant employees, domestic servants in public or private
service, and unskilled labourers. (" Die Wohnungen in der Stadt Zürich
am 1. Dezember 1910 ", Statistik der Stadt, Zürich, No. 21, p. 14.)
2
I. Dependent workers : wage-earners, hotel and restaurant employees,
staff of banks and insurance institutions, various private employees,
officials.
II. Independent workers : employers (large undertakings), hotel
and restaurant keepers, lawyers, doctors, etc., contractors and architects, artists and journalists, small traders, miscellaneous occupations,
pension holders, no occupation, occupation not stated. (" Die Wohnverhältnisse in der Stadt Bern " —• Beiträge zur Statistik der Stadt
Bern, No. 6, p. 42.)
3
The social classes were as follows : persons living on their income ;
liberal professions ; directors and managers of industrial, commercial
and banking undertakings ; independent small artisans ; small traders ;
officials and salaried employees, including pension holders ; industrial
wáge-earners ; subordinate staff in public services, the armed forces,
domestic service, retail trade, hotels and restaurants, etc. ; agricultural
workers ; occupation not stated. (Bollettino dell' Unione Statistica delle
Città italiane, Eighth Year, No. 2, 4 Dec. 1921, p. 66.)

— 63 —
fairly detailed K In Sweden, on the contrary, there are only
five large groups 2.
The differences, it will be seen, are considerable. It should
also be added that in these various systems of classification the
relative importance of the different classes is very unequal.
Thus, in most cases the working class forms only one group,
although the workers everywhere represent a very large proportion of the population covered by the censuses. Other groups,
on the contrary, are distinguished in the same way as the
working class, although their number is much smaller and
they have no very distinctive characteristics.
An entirely different method of classifying the population
into social classes is that based on income 3 . Such a system
has the disadvantage, however, of not allowing of a distinction
being made between certain social classes whose income is much
the same but whose standard of living differs.
The problem of standardising the system of classification
into social classes is a very delicate one. The very idea of
social class is vague and may be interpreted differently according to country. It seems, however, that if a threefold criterion
is taken, the industry to which the person belongs, his status
in the industry, and the amount of his earnings or income, a
fairly reliable social classification might be obtained. A distinction might for instance first be made in the working class
between certain large groups, each of which would comprise
a relatively large number of persons and would correspond
approximately to a different standard of life from the rest, such
as skilled workers with possibly a separate heading for certain
industries like the textile and mining industries, unskilled
workers, homeworkers, and artisans. For other social groups
a middle class might be defined as consisting of traders, manufacturers, members of the liberal professions, officials, and
1
It was as follows : manufacturers and wholesale traders ; artisans ;
retail traders ; higher officials, liberal professions ; clerks and commercial
employees ; foremen and technical staff ; seamen and fishermen ;
skilled workers ; other workers ; pension holders ; occupations not
stated. (" Folketellingen i Norge i desember 1920, VII, Boligstatistik",
in Norges offisielle Statistik, VII, 98, p. 135.)
2
As follows : workers ; officials ; small artisans ; persons retired or
pensioned and persons living on their income ; and well-to-do persons,
3
This method was adopted for instance in the Swedish housing
censuses of 1910 and 1920, where this information was obtained from
the income-tax returns.

— 64 —
responsible employees in private undertakings, and a well-to-do
class as consisting of persons living on a comfortable income and
highly-paid persons in all occupations.
Fairly satisfactory, although more rudimentary, results may
also be obtained for certain urban aggregations by an altogether
different and indirect method. It consists in compiling all the
data by relatively small districts or geographical units, and in
grouping these units according to social character into workers'
districts, middle-class districts, and upper-class districts. This
method has the advantage of simplicity, but it can only apply
when the social character of each quarter is well defined. Even
in such conditions the decision as to the class into which a particular district is to be placed will always be somewhat arbitrary.
The relation between housing conditions and social class is
not the only one that might be examined. For a detailed study
of housing problems, it would for instance be very instructive
to bring out by a suitable system of classification the relations
between housing conditions and nationality, race, and religion.
Very little has been done so far to explore these fields, apart
perhaps from the question of race, which has been examined
in certain oversea countries where a distinction between the
dwellings of white and coloured persons is found necessary.

CHAPTER V
STATISTICS OF RENTS

Among the various sets of statistics dealing with rents, a
distinction should be made between the censuses or enquiries,
whether periodical or not, from which the absolute level of the
rents of the different types of dwellings may be determined in
more or less detail, and the periodical investigations intended
to determine fluctuations in rents without reference to their
absolute level and based either on enquiries limited to a certain
number of typical dwellings, or simply on the estimates of
certain persons particularly acquainted with fluctuations in
rents, or finally on the deductions that may be drawn from the
legislation in force. This second type of investigation is undertaken as a rule with a view to establishing index numbers of the
cost of living. The treatment of these questions is therefore
dealt with in that connection and need not be discussed here 1 .
The question of rents has, moreover, been the subject of
thorough investigation in certain countries, for the purpose of
determining the actual cost of living in certain social classes.
There has even been an international enquiry, undertaken by
the British Board of Trade, into the cost of living of the working class in Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and the
United States from 1905 to 1909 2, in which an attempt was
made, among other things, to establish comparable data
on rents in these countries. These studies were undertaken,
1

Cf. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E : Methods of Compiling

Cost-

of-Living Index Numbers.
Studies and Reports, Series N , No. 6.
Geneva, 1925.
2
Report of an Enquiry by the Board of Trade into
Working-Class
Rents, Housing, and Retail Prices, Together with the Rates of Wages in
Certain Occupations in the Principal Industrial Towns of the United
Kingdom, ... in Germany, ... in France, ... in Belgium, ... in the United
States. London, 1908-1911.

— 66 —

however, from a special point of view and need not be
considered further here 1.
Reference may also be made for completeness to certain rent
statistics prepared, more or less as an exception, on the basis of
the returns made in certain countries in connection with rent
taxation 2.
The statistics considered here as a rule take one of two forms.
The first is that of a general rent census undertaken at comparatively distant intervals and intended, above all, to give as
detailed a view as possible of the conditions prevailing at a
given moment. These statistics are usually compiled on the
occasion of housing censuses, from which some of the data
required are derived. They are considered, however, to form
a distinct section of the enquiry and are not compiled in all
countries. Reference may be made to the national censuses of
Austria in 1910, Germany in 1918, Norway and Sweden in 1910
and 1920, and Switzerland in 1920, as also to the municipal
censuses of several German, Scandinavian, and Swiss towns
before and after the war, and those of Prague in 1921 and
Warsaw in 1919. In some cases special enquiries were undertaken on the subject, as in Sweden and Switzerland in 1924.
The second form of census is that relating as a rule only to
urban aggregations and covering only the principal characteristics of dwellings, but undertaken regularly at fairly close
intervals (half a year or a year) for the purpose of following
changes in the general level of rents. This system is used particularly in German, Scandinavian, and Swiss towns. It should
be added that in some cases these data are also used for the
construction of index numbers which are incorporated in the
cost-of-living index numbers. Rut however this may be, they
are first compiled in the absolute form.
It is clear that the purpose of these two types of statistics is
not exactly the same. The first aims above all at studying the
existing situation in all its details and at a given date, and if
need be at determining the most important changes that have
happened by a comparison with similar enquiries conducted
1

Cf. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E : Methods of Conducting

Family

Budget Enquiries.
Studies and Reports, Series N , No. 9. Geneva,
1926.
2
One of t h e best-known examples of this type of statistics is t h a t
published before t h e war by t h e AUSTRIAN

Statistik der hauszinssteuerpflichtigen
1908 ; K. K. Finanzministerium ;

MINISTRY

OF F I N A N C E :

Wohnungen nach dem Stande für
Vienna, 1909.

— 67 —

some five or ten years before. The second aims principally at
following as closely as possible the constant changes in rents,
while limiting itself to a more approximate examination of the
situation at the time of each return. Apart from these
differences in the scope, thoroughness, and frequency of the
investigation, the problems which arise are very much the same.

DEFINITION OF A RENTED DWELLING AND OF R E N T

The unit of " the dwelling " on which rent statistics are based
differs somewhat from that described for the censuses of dwellings and housing conditions, in the sense that it is delimited
not on the basis of the technical and social criteria of intended
and actual use of the premises but on a legal criterion, the lease
relating to the premises.
Reference was already made to this conception of the dwelling
when dwelling statistics were examined \ and it was objected
that it was too narrow as it excluded all dwellings not rented
(i.e. vacant dwellings, those occupied by their owner, or ceded
free of charge or in return for services). This objection obviously has no force here, for it is clear that rent statistics
can apply only to dwellings actually rented.
It may be added that in certain cases rent statistics are
taken to include vacant dwellings which are to let. In this
case the rents demanded by the owner are recorded, but naturally such data have not the same value as those relating to
dwellings actually leased. In any case they should be placed
under a seperate heading. In this connection it may be observed that in certain towns special statistics are compiled
concerning the rents of vacant dwellings registered with the
public housing offices 2. These figures can hardly be considered
representative of the general level of rents, unless the percentage
of vacant dwellings is relatively high and the conditions of the
housing market have been very stable for several years. They
serve much more to illustrate the prices prevailing in the housing market, and even so it is necessary to ascertain that they
do not comprise a large number of dwellings with excessive
rents, which remain vacant for that very reason.
1
a

See Chapter II, p. 27.
The statistics of the municipalities of Basle and Hamburg.

— 68 —
In other cases *• rent statistics are taken to include dwellings
occupied by their owner and those let free of charge or in return
for services. The estimated rental value of the premises is
then taken into consideration, being based either on previous
leases or on analogous premises. These data are usually presented separately, not only because they are more approximate,
but also to furnish interesting comparisons. Actually, however,
inclusion of these groups modifies the statistics, which then
become statistics of rental value and not of rents.
Although the legal conception of the dwelling as defined by
the lease relating to it has the advantage of clearness, it suffers
on the contrary from the disadvantage of not corresponding
exactly with the conception of the dwelling advocated here for
other forms of housing statistics. Admittedly, the differences
are not very considerable. They arise only if one and the same
tenant acquires the right under one lease to two or more separate
dwellings, or if two or more independent households each directly rent from the owner part of one and the same dwelling. These
two possibilities, and particularly the latter, are seldom realised,
for in most cases where households live together in the same
dwelling, one of them acts as principal tenant and sub-lets to
the others certain parts of the dwelling.
If in spite of this it is desired to base rent statistics on a
definition of the dwelling identical with that adopted for the
other branches of housing statistics — which in theory at least
would be preferable — the owner would have to be asked to
determine the exact rent applying to each of the dwellings,
either by adding the rents charged to independent co-tenants,
or by dividing among the different dwellings the total rent he
receives for several dwellings under a single lease. Although
not impossible, such an operation seems somewhat difficult.
Whatever system is adopted, it is also necessary to separate
altogether dwellings let furnished and isolated rooms or parts
of flats sub-let by the principal tenant under special contracts,
the characteristics of these being so distinct that they must be
studied separately.
These questions are not so important as that of determining
the significance of the word " rent ". In some districts it is
not the custom to include in the rent more than the strict cost
1

Stockholm censuses of 1910-1920 and those of Berlin and Basle of
1910.

— 69 —
of hiring the premises, the tenant being entirely responsible for
the cost of heating, lighting, and the water supply. In other
districts, however, the owner takes the responsibility for the
latter charges and therefore makes certain additions to the rent,
but sometimes also adds a sum for certain services such as the
clearing away of rubbish, services of caretaker (concierge), the
maintenance of parts of the building shared by all the occupants,
or for reimbursing his payment of certain taxes ; whereas in
other localities many of these services are included in the rent,
it being impossible to distinguish what part is actually paid for
the actual hiring of the premises. These differences of custom
must obviously lead to fairly marked divergencies in the
significance of the rent statistics.
If greater uniformity is to be obtained on this point, an
understanding should be reached on the standard to be followed
so far as possible. For instance, everything not directly connected with the hiring of the premises might be excluded, i.e.
all charges for heating, lighting, water, and the removal of
rubbish ; while, on the contrary, those connected merely with
the caretaking of the building and its maintenance would be
included, as the payment of the rent should give the tenant the
right to use the entrances and parts of the building open
to the public which the owner normally manages and maintains.
As regards taxes, only those should be included which under
the law are expressly payable by the tenants. If it is impossible
to keep to this standard, differences should be clearly stated so
that they may at least be taken into account in interpreting
the data.

CLASSIFICATION OF DWELLINGS BY RENTS AND DETERMINATION
OF AVERAGE RENTS

Rent statistics usually supply two sets of fundamental data :
the number of dwellings classified by rent groups, and the
average rents of different types of dwellings.
The method of classifying dwellings into rent groups differs
somewhat according to country. In some countries there are
less than ten groups in the classification, in others over twenty ;
but no international standard can be imposed here, for in the
first place the currency units in terms of which the classes are
defined differ fundamentally from one country to another, and

— 70 —
secondly the field to be covered varies with the degree of dispersion in rents as a whole. All that can be recommended is
that the subdivision should be detailed enough to bring out the
nature of the distribution, and that the subdivisions should not
be too many as to mask the general tendencies.
The computation of the average rents of different types of
dwellings is usually made by calculating the simple arithmetic
mean. It should be observed, however, that if it is proposed
to compare the general level of rents of different localities, it
is necessary when determining it to eliminate any cause of
difference lying in the proportion of large to small dwellings in
the district. For the average rent will clearly be higher in a
locality where there is a big proportion of large dwellings,
even if the rent is the same for dwellings of the same size. To
eliminate this factor, it is necessary to calculate first the average
rent of the dwellings in each size-group, and then to obtain a
weighted mean of these average rents, choosing the same weights
for all the localities. The choice of the standard weights must
obviously be arbitrary. That most generally used is based on
the relative importance of the number of dwellings of different
sizes in all the localities covered by the census at a given date.
For international comparisons, another choice of one or more
standard weights would be necessary.
A similar principle applies if it is proposed to compare one
date with another. In this connection it may be added that
if it is proposed to determine the rise in rents by means of a
retrospective enquiry, the information given by tenants who
occupied the same dwelling on the dates covered by the investigation must not be considered enough, for then there would be a
risk of under-estimating the general rise that has actually taken
place. Rents are increased usually on the occasion of the
conclusion of a new lease, and if all persons who have moved
are excluded from the investigation, a large proportion of those
whose rents have been increased will be eliminated. For a
retrospective enquiry, therefore, it is necessary to apply to the
owners, who are alone in a position to give the rents paid
for the different dwellings, irrespective of changes among their
tenants.
In some cases the average rent has been calculated not only
for the dwelling, but also per room \ so as to bring out the
1

In the Swedish and Swiss censuses of 1920, for instance.

— 71 —
average prices paid for each room according to the different types
of dwelling and the different localities. Similarly, the average
rent per occupant is sometimes determined, with a view to
bringing out differences in the conditions of large and small
families. It is clear that such data cannot be of real interest
from the international standpoint unless the terms " room "
and " occupant " have been defined on uniform lines, a subject
which has already been discussed 1.
Mention should also be made of certain distinctions drawn
in rent statistics, based on the fundamental characteristics of
the dwellings. It has already been pointed out that the size
of the dwelling must be taken into account in calculating the
average rents for a number of localities. This fundamental
criterion must obviously also be used in classifying dwellings
by their rents. In point of fact, many periodical rent censuses
go no further in analysing the characteristics of the dwellings.
This form of study has been developed much further in special
enquiries and the censuses undertaken on the occasion of general
housing censuses. Systems of classification according to certain
structural characteristics of the dwellings to which the rent
figures relate are for instance used. Thus an attempt is made
to determine the relation between rents and the story on which
the dwelling is situated, with particular reference to those in
attics or the basement 2 , the relation between rents and the
provision of certain subsidiary rooms (bath-rooms, servants'
rooms, lobbies, closets, etc.) 3, and that between rents and the
existence of means of heating, particularly central heating 4.
Other investigations have aimed at determining the relation
between rents and certain characteristics of the occupants of
the dwellings. Rents have for instance been classified by the
occupation and social status of the occupants, or by their
income 5 . The systems of classification adopted for these

1

See Chapter II, pp. 34-35, and Chapter IV, pp. 53.
Examples of this kind of enquiry are to be found, for instance, in
the Norwegian census of 1920, that of Basle in 1910, of Prague in 1921,
and of Warsaw in 1919.
3
An analysis of this kind was to be found in the Austrian census of
1910, that of Berlin in 1920, and of Warsaw in 1919.
* This question was studied with particular care in the Swedish
censuses of 1910 and 1920.
5
An example of this analysis is to be found in the Scandinavian
statistics.
2

— 12 —
various ends are the same as those already discussed in previous
chapters, so that there is no reason to dwell on them here.
Some countries make enquiries into yet other questions. In
some places, for instance, consideration is given to the question
of the rent paid by sub-tenants to the principal tenant 1 . Elsewhere, an attempt is made to throw light on the influence of
rent legislation by classifying dwellings according to whether
they are subject to regulation or not 2. These are very interesting questions, but they seem of too specialised a nature, or not
sufficiently widely taken up, for the adoption of at all definite
international standards in their respect.
In conclusion, it may be mentioned that in addition to all
these various data, the total sum spent on rent in all dwellings
of a locality or country is sometimes calculated. This operation
presents no problem of method, as it consists simply of an
addition ; it is chiefly of interest for the study of fiscal questions
and the calculation of the national income. It may be added
that this type of enquiry is not very widespread 3.

1
Reference may be made here to the Munich census of 1904-1909,
and the Swedish enquiry into small dwellings of 1920.
2
This definition was, for instance, drawn in the Swedish census of
1920, and the Copenhagen census of 1921.
3
Examples are the Swiss census, 1920, those of Stockholm, 1910
and 1921, Copenhagen, 1921, and Prague, 1921.

CHAPTER VI
STATISTICS OF THE HOUSING MARKET

In statistics of the housing market, the object of which is to
determine the supply of and demand for vacant dwellings and
to follow the fluctuations in these, a distinction must be made
between two fundamentally different sets of data : those which
aim at determining as exactly as possible the actual supply and
demand in the housing market, and those which may be described as " indexes " and give only an indication of fluctuations
of supply and demand without defining the amplitude of such
fluctuations.
The first set of data are obtained from censuses of vacant
dwellings and systematic estimates of the housing needs of the
population (which sometimes accompany the censuses); those
of the second type consist principally of the statistics published
by the public housing offices concerning their activities. For
the sake of completeness, certain statistical series may be mentioned, based on the simple qualitative declarations of competent
persons.
CENSUSES OF VACANT DWELLINGS

Hitherto, the census method has mostly been applied to only
one of the parties in the housing market, that of supply ; for
the other, that of demand, lends itself only with difficulty to an
operation of this kind. The census properly so called is therefore used as a rule only for determining the number of vacant
dwellings. The number of households in need of a dwelling
is usually obtained by way of estimates based on various demographical statistics.

— 74 —

A census of vacant dwellings may be undertaken either as a
separate operation or as part of a general census of dwellings.
Most countries where general censuses are undertaken adopt the
latter method. The information given concerning vacant
dwellings in the enquiries varies from one place to another, but
the distinction between inhabited and vacant dwellings is nearly
always drawn. It will be remembered that it was recommended
above for the classification of dwellings by intended and actual
use 1.
The very fact that general censuses of dwellings are on such
a large scale means that they can be undertaken only at relatively distant intervals, as a rule ten years. It is obvious that
this cannot be enough for following fluctuations in the housing
market. The consequence has been that in several localities
a special census of vacant dwellings is undertaken regularly
once a year. Investigations of this kind are made particularly
in Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, and Switzerland, but nearly all of them are still purely
local, and it is perhaps only in Germany that a first effort has
been made to standardise the various municipal censuses on a
national basis.
It should be observed that the season of the year in which
the census is taken is of some importance. In many countries
it is the custom to concentrate the expiry of leases in a certain
quarter of the year. The number of vacant dwellings will
therefore vary considerably according as the census is taken
before, during, or after that quarter. In actual fact, most of
the local investigations referred to above take the census in
the last months of the year (or the first days of January), i.e.
at a date following the removal quarter, which is usually in
autumn.
Definition of Vacant Dwellings
Whether vacant dwellings merely form one group in the
classification used for the general census of dwellings or represent the basic unit for a census limited to vacant dwellings, it
is essential that the term " vacant dwelling " should be carefully defined. There is no need to reconsider the definition of
the dwelling itself, for that already adopted in the discussion
of statistics of dwellings can very well be applied here.
1

Chapter II, pp. 31-32.

— 75 —
The state of vacancy of a dwelling, on the contrary, may be
interpreted in fairly different ways. If these are to be standardised for purposes of international comparison, the best
would probably be, here as elsewhere, to adopt the widest
conception and to consider any habitable dwelling vacant if, at
the date of the census, it is unoccupied and immediately available for occupation. This would exclude dwellings in buildings still under construction, or undergoing important repairs,
or, on the other hand, about to be demolished. It would
similarly eliminate dwellings the occupation of which has been
prohibited, and those for which the necessary formalities for
obtaining a permit of occupation have not yet been concluded,
where such formalities are compulsory. The definition would
also exclude those vacant dwellings which the owner can use
a t any time, although leaving them temporarily unoccupied —
such as the houses used only in summer or winter, as the case
may be — and those reserved for other purposes than habitation.
In all these cases the logical application of the definition
adopted raises no difficulties and is generally observed. On
some other points, on the contrary, the interpretation is more
open to question. There is, for instance, the case of a dwelling
actually empty at the time of the enquiry, but already the
subject of a lease which comes into force only at a later date.
In theory, the dwelling may be considered vacant, but in practice this vacancy is of no interest as it will cease comparatively
soon, and it is more or less impossible to use the dwelling for
any other purpose in the interval. It seems that the latter
point of view should be preferred. On the other hand, certain
statisticians include among vacant dwellings those for which
notice to terminate the lease has been given, or the lease has
not been renewed, so that they will become vacant during the
quarter when the enquiry was made. The method is somewhat
disadvantageous, however, for there is nothing to prove, on the
date of the census, that the dwelling will not be rented again
on the expiry of the lease by the same or another occupant.
The idea of anticipating the future is, moreover, entirely contrary
to the very purpose of the census, which aims at giving a view
of the actual position on the date of the return.
The terms of the definition accepted here involve including
among vacant dwellings all flats to be let furnished and onefamily houses for sale with immediate possession. In most
»existing statistics these two groups are dealt with separately

— 76 —

or even excluded. The latter alternative cannot be accepted,
however, if the statistics claim to be complete, nor does it seem
expedient to include these two sets of vacant dwellings with the
rest, for they satisfy different needs, and in some measure
belong to special markets which should preferably not be confused with the general market of rented dwellings. The best
would therefore be to count these special groups separately.
In several countries, finally, a special heading is reserved for
separate rooms to let. In fact these generally do not correspond
to the definition of the dwelling adopted, as they form only
a fraction of the dwelling which the occupants are prepared to
cede, whether furnished or not, to an outsider. Yet any complete statistics of the housing market must take them into
account ; they may therefore be enumerated in a special class,
being counted as basic units of a separate type.

Classification of Vacant Dwellings and Comparison
with Other Data
Vacant dwellings are usually classified in different ways.
The most fundamental system of classification, as in other
branches of housing statistics, is that according to the number
of rooms. It is very generally used, but if it is to have any
real value from the international standpoint, the term " room "
must be defined and standardised in the manner advocated at
the beginning of this study.
Among other forms of classification, reference may be made
to those already indicated in connection with general censuses
of dwellings : the story on which the dwelling is situated or
its situation with respect to the street, the rent-group to which
it belongs, the connection between the dwelling properly so
called and premises intended for business activity, such as an
office, shop, or workshop. Other forms of classification belong
more definitely to the statistics of the housing market. These
are, on the one hand, that based on the length of time the
dwelling has been vacant at the date of the census, and, on the
other hand, that distinguishing between dwellings in newlybuilt houses and those which have already been inhabited.
The number of vacant dwellings as an absolute figure is not
of great interest in itself. If it is to be properly interpreted it
has to be brought into relation with other data.

— 77 —
The most usual comparison is that with the total number of
dwellings in existence, which eliminates the very variable factor
of the size of the urban aggregation. It should be observed,
however, that the significance of this percentage is far from
the same everywhere, for it depends on several factors whose
importance differs with the urban aggregation. This fact
became very clear when an attempt was made to establish a
normal percentage as a means of describing a satisfactory state
of the housing market. Hasse's rule, so called, which fixes the
normal ratio at 3 per cent., was soon found inapplicable in many
localities. The fact is that the' stock of vacant dwellings has
to play a very complex part. It forms a reserve which has to
meet, in the first place, the needs of the newly formed households seeking a home and of persons coming into the town for
the first time, and, secondly, the current needs of households
living in the locality who have to move either because the
dwelling they occupy no longer suits them or because it is to
be demolished, transformed, or used for other purposes. The
more intense these various needs, the larger the stock must be.
Thus a town in the full swing of development with a high
marriage rate or a large volume of immigration must have a
larger reserve of vacant dwellings than one of the same size
but more stagnant, in which the population has been stationary
for some time. Similarly, a very old town consisting largely
of buildings which have to be replaced needs a much larger
reserve than another which, other things being equal, consists
mainly of quite new buildings.
As a new dwelling cannot be built in a day and as the various
needs do not appear with constant regularity, it is also necessary
to have a certain margin, so as to satisfy them as and when
they occur. This margin should, moreover, be all the wider
as a whole when there is more variety in the size, situation,
and comfort of the dwellings, so that each type of need may
receive equal satisfaction.
The fact that the kind of housing needed has to be taken
into account in interpreting the percentage of vacant dwellings
shows the interest there would be in comparing the number of
vacant dwellings, i.e. those offered with that of the dwellings
demanded. It need hardly be added that an examination of
the ratio of supply to demand is fundamental in the study of
any market.
The determination of the demand for dwellings has not often

— 78 —
been undertaken, for it is a very difficult operation. To count
up the actual number of persons in search of a dwelling would
mean a very large-scale enquiry, for every person would have
to be questioned on his intentions in this respect. It can
therefore be undertaken only in connection with general censuses 1 . When it has been wished to determine the housing
demand periodically in order to compare it with the number
of vacant dwellings recorded by the annual censuses, all that
has been done as a rule has been to make a more or less approximate estimate. Various calculations have been made for this
purpose in certain localities, chiefly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. They are based as a rule on the
statistics of marriages, divorces, deaths, immigration and emigration, and data concerning removals in general. The value of
the results obtained varies with the availability of the data,
the strictness of the methods employed, and the nature of the
needs to be estimated. Owing to this diversity in the problems raised and in the possibilities of solving them, it seems
inexpedient to propose international standards in this connection. It would be of great interest, however, to continue the
researches in this field 2.
STATISTICS OF PUBLIC HOUSING OFFICES

It was stated at the beginning of this chapter that these
statistics could give only an indication of the fluctuations in
the housing market, without offering a precise view of the actual
volume of supply and demand, or even of the amplitude of
the fluctuations. Sometimes the public housing offices have
absolute control over the housing market (when the law makes
it compulsory to apply to them for any kind of housing trans1
An investigation of this kind was undertaken, for instance, on t h e
occasion of t h e German housing census of May 1918, when every married
woman or widow who h a d no dwelling of her own on t h e date of t h e
census h a d t o state whether she proposed to set up a home of her own
after t h e war, and if so in w h a t commune.
2
The following investigations m a y be cited as worthy of interest :

STATISTISCHES A M T D E R STADT ZÜRICH : " Die Erhebungen über den

Zürcher Wohnungsmarkt " , in Statistik der Stadt Zürich, No. 15.
" Wohnungsvorrat u n d Wohnungsbedarf in der S t a d t Bern, Anfang
1926 " , Beiträge zur Statistik der Stadt Bern, No. 7. Dr. STOWESAND :
" Der notwendige Mindestvorrat an Leerwohnungen " , Verhandlungsbericht über die Konferenz der Vorstände Statistischer Aemter Deutscher
Städte, 1913.

— 79 —
action, for instance), and then the statistics may be considered
to give an appropriate measure of the volume of supply and
demand. But hitherto these conditions have been realised
only in very exceptional cases, during periods of acute crisis,
and they have not been maintained when the situation on the
market has returned to the normal. There therefore seems
little justification for stressing these possibilities, which appear
to be altogether temporary, and in addition arise very seldom.
The essential purpose of the statistics of public housing is
not of so much interest here. In general, these statistics are
compiled not to serve as an index number of fluctuations in
the housing market, but simply to show the growth of the
activities of the institutions concerned. But as this is of some
interest from the point of view of housing policy, it may
therefore be given consideration.
The statistics of public housing offices have not yet been
developed very far. They are to be met only in localities
where institutions of this kind are systematically organised and
it is considered necessary to publish reports on their work.
They are, therefore, strictly local, and Germany is practically
the only country in which a first effort at standardising the
data of the different municipal offices has been made. There
are several respects in which progress might be made at little
cost, both in improving the statistics themselves and in making
them more comparable internationally.
In the first place, it would be necessary to define exactly
what is meant by vacant dwellings asked for and supplied, as
this varies with local customs and the administrative regulations
in force in the different offices. For the term " vacant dwelling " itself, it seems that the definition already suggested for
censuses of vacant dwellings might be adopted as it stands for
the statistics of housing offices. With respect to demand,
it may be observed that in several cases a distinction is made
between more and less urgent demands ; that is to say, between
the demand of persons who have no dwelling of their own or
are about to lose that which they occupy, and the demand of
persons who simply wish to change their home because that which
they are occupying no longer suits them entirely 1 . This is, no
1

This distinction is made in the forms prepared for organising the
statistics of the German housing offices on a national basis. In Vienna
the present statistics on demand are limited to the more urgent needs.

— 80 —
doubt, a distinction which ought to be made, but the criteria
used must be clearly defined. Similarly, with respect to supply,
a distinction should be made between the actual offer of a dwelling
immediately available and the anticipated offer made some
time in advance of a dwelling which it is expected will be vacant
in the near future.
It is also essential that very strict measures should be taken
to ensure that all the applications recorded in the registers are
still valid. It seems as if the only satisfactory means of arriving
at this end is to make it compulsory, on pain of being struck off
the list, to renew unsatisfied applications periodically. This
was, in fact, one of the most formal of the resolutions adopted
at the thirty-second Conference of German Municipal Statisticians in 1924, when the organisation of the statistics of public
housing offices was discussed *. Even so, the period for
renewal ought to be fixed as uniformly as possible ; the most
suitable period would seem to be one month.
The systems of classifying the data of the supply of, and
demand for, dwellings vary somewhat from one country to
another Some of them are probably necessary if it is wished
to illustrate completely and in detail the growth and activity of
the housing offices. For instance, a classification must first
be made by the nature of the application. A distinction will
thus be made between :
Applications not satisfied at the beginning of a given period ;
Applications received during t h e period ;
Applications which could n o t be satisfied through t h e office ;
Applications withdrawn by t h e applicants, either because they
were able t o satisfy their own requirements Or because t h e y changed
their minds during the period ;
Applications struck off the list because not renewed within the period
prescribed by t h e regulations.

By striking the balance between the applications thus added
to the register and those withdrawn, the number of those not
satisfied at the end of the given period is obtained, a figure
which forms the starting point for the data for the following
period.
The length of the period covered each time should also be
standardised, as it varies somewhat from one case to another.
1

VERBAND

DEUTSCHER

STAEDTESTATISTIKER :

Verhandlungsbericht

über die am 12. und 13. September 1924 abgehaltene XXXIl.
Konferenz
der Vorstände Statistischer Aemter Deutscher Städte ; Kommunale Wohnungsmarktstatislik,
p . 11.

— 81 —
The most usual seems to be the month, which is suitable for
general adoption.
This classification should also be combined with one based
on certain characteristics of the dwellings themselves. The
most important appear to be the size of the dwelling and the
question whether the premises are used exclusively for habitation or partly for other purposes as well.
Among these various data, that of the applications not satisfied at the end of each period, and of those recorded during the
period, lend themselves best to the construction of an index
number of fluctuations in the housing market. It is preferable,
however, not to use these figures in their absolute form, for
the number of applications may vary considerably, owing to
growth in the activity of the offices, without any relation to
real changes in the market. So as to remove at least part of
this source of error, the ratio of demand to supply is usually
taken, and its fluctuations are followed from one period to
another. But this index is not altogether exact, for, if so, it
would have to be admitted that the two sides of the work of
the offices grows to the same extent, which is obviously not
always the case. It is true that the changes are as a rule very
gradual, so that the effect is scarcely noticed on short-period
fluctuations. It follows that the indexes constructed by means
of the statistics of housing offices are most reliable for the study
of the latter fluctuations. For those of longer duration, greater
caution is needed in the interpretation.

INDEXES BASED ON

QUALITATIVE ESTIMATES

Reference may finally be made to the method employed, for
instance, in Sweden, for estimating the^situation in the housing
market — a method based exclusively^on the qualitative estimates made by persons acquainted with the local situation.
Questionnaires are sent periodically to the municipal councils
of localities of some importance, and to special correspondents
in small localities, asking them to state whether, judging from
the information at their disposal, they consider the number of
dwellings offered to be " sufficient ",rt" hardly sufficient ", or
" definitely insufficient " to satisfy the demand. The localities
are then classified and counted in three groups according to
the replies received. The three sets of figures obtained by the

— 82 —
regular repetition of this operation thus give an index expressing in some measure the general situation of the housing market 1 .
Such a method is clearly only of real interest if the persons
responsible for making the periodical estimates have a fairly
reliable practical knowledge of the situation, and if it can be
assumed that the estimates made for different localities are of
much the same value. If these conditions can be realised, it is
certain that a method of the kind may yield interesting
results at small cost. It may be added that it has been applied,
apparently satisfactorily, in another field, that of the labour
market 2 . Perhaps one day it may also be found useful with
respect to the housing market.

1
These operations are carried out separately for all localities of some
importance, and for all small localities on the one hand, and for small
dwellings (two rooms and a kitchen), average-sized dwellings (three to five
rooms and kitchen), and large dwellings (six rooms and kitchen) on the
other.
2
In this particular case, the heads of a certain number of undertakings
belonging to different industries are requested to report periodically
on their views of the state of activity in their firms or the amount of
employment they can give. The replies are then compiled in the manner
indicated above, so as to give some kind of index of the conditions
in the labour market. The chief examples of this type of data are to
be found in Germany (Reichsarbeitsblatt) and Sweden (Sodala Meddelanderi).

CHAPTER VII
STATISTICS OF FLUCTUATIONS IN TOTAL
HOUSING SUPPLY

The term " statistics of fluctuations in total housing supply"
is taken to cover all the statistics used for determining any
quantitative or qualitative change in the total supply or stock
of dwellings and buildings. These statistics, therefore, form
a direct complement to the housing censuses, which give only
a view of this stock at a given moment.
Fluctuations in the total housing supply are caused primarily
by the construction of new dwelling houses, and the transformation or demolition of those already in existence. It follows
that the statistics relating to these points are the fundamental
element of the statistics of fluctuations in the total housing
supply. They are derived, as a rule, from the public services
responsible for supervising building operations. This fact
sometimes makes it difficult to give them the exact form or
scope desired, for theoretical considerations have to give way
to administrative necessities. Thus it may happen that the
data are established in a form bringing out more clearly the
activity in the building industry than the consequent fluctuations in the total housing supply. As a rule, however, this is
merely a formal defect.
It should be made clear that it is not proposed to examine
here statistics relating to the construction, transformation, and
demolition of buildings other than those used for living in, as
these do not belong to the field of housing policy. The distinction between these two branches of the statistics of building
activity is in fact very generally observed.
Statistics of fluctuations in the total housing supply are to
be found in one form or another in most of the countries where
housing censuses are taken, but the degree to which they are

— 84 —
developed still varies considerably. In some cases they are
compiled by national services, and cover, if not all localities,
at least the more important centres, as in Denmark, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and
Switzerland, as well as in Canada, New Zealand, the Union of
South Africa, and the United States. In other countries, such
as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, this
work is still in the hands of the municipalities and is undertaken
only in the principal centres.
To obtain a complete view of the fluctuations, it is not enough
to consider only all the dwellings added to the existing stock,
or withdrawn from it owing to structural activities. Account
must also be taken of those withdrawn from the available
stock owing to accident (fire, flood, earthquake, war, etc.), or
to a simple decision of the authorities prohibiting their use.
On these latter points, however, there are very few data available \ for as a rule such information does not come within the
competence of the services supervising buildings which furnish
the statistics of fluctuations. They must therefore be obtained
from entirely different sources of information — insurance
companies and inspectorates — and these are not always
available.
In actual fact, the gaps caused by the omission of these data
seem inconsiderable. It often happens that dwellings which
can no longer be used owing to an accident, or the use of which
has been prohibited, are, very soon made habitable or demolished
to make room for new buildings. In this case they are included
in the statistics, and the only error is a certain delay in registration, which is no doubt regrettable, but has hitherto not
seemed serious enough to call for the compilation of more exact
statistics. It may be added that to give a special heading to
dwellings declared uninhabitable is of no value in the determination of fluctuations in the total housing supply, unless the
authorities which have competence to declare them uninhabitable also have the power to have them evacuated and to secure
the observance of the prohibition, a condition which, in the
present state of the law, is not always fulfilled.
1

As an example, reference may be made however to the German
statistics, in which dwellings destroyed by fire are counted with those
demolished, and the Dutch statistics, which have a special heading for
dwellings declared uninhabitable.

— -85 —

T H E DIFFERENT FORMS OF STATISTICS OF FLUCTUATIONS IN
THE TOTAL HOUSING SUPPLY AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

Statistics of fluctuations in the total housing supply of dwellings may take several different forms, to be distinguished by
the source of information used and the nature of the data
obtained.
In the first place, there are the two sets of statistics obtained
in connection with the work of the authorities responsible for
supervising building. The first set is based on the supervision
exercised before the building is undertaken — the submission
of plans or granting of building permits — and the second, on
the supervision carried out after the work is completed —
check that the construction complies with the approved plans,
or grant of a permit to occupy
Among the statistics compiled on a national basis, the first
of these sources is the one generally used in non-European
countries, and the second in European countries. In some of
the latter, however, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland,
for instance, both sets of statistics are compiled side by side, as
also in many of the municipal statistics.
There can be no question that the statistics relating to the
work actually done give a more exact view of the state of
affairs. Statistics based on building permits have one disadvantage and one advantage compared with these : one disadvantage, because they are less exact owing to the very unequal
periods that always elapse between the fulfilment of the formalities recorded by these statistics and the actual starting of
the work (sometimes even, the work is not started at all, or is
not completed) ; but also an advantage, for, owing to these
very delays, the data give an anticipated view of future construction and the results to be expected. But these are clearly
not the considerations actually dictating the choice between
the two methods, which depends above all on how building is
supervised in the different countries, and on the consequent
facilities for preparing one or other of these sets of statistics.
In addition to these statistics, which may give a view of
building activity as a whole and the consequent fluctuations in
the total housing supply, reference should also be made to data
of more limited scope, namely, those relating exclusively to
building carried out with the assistance of the authorities, or

— 86 —

through the medium of public services or large private organisations for constructing cheap dwellings.
Statistics of building subsidised by the public authorities are
to be found in more or less complete form in most countries
where there is a system of official assistance for the building
industry 1. Statistics of the building activities of large public
or private institutions are to be found chiefly in Belgium, France,
Great Britain and Italy, as also in the United States, where
this type of institution has been developed very far.
Owing to their very nature, these last two sets of statistics
can give only partial information on fluctuations in the total
housing supply, unless subsidised building, or the work of the
bodies in question, represents the whole building activity of
the country, as may happen in a time of crisis, when all private
building comes to a stop. Such conditions are the exception,
however, and as a rule the importance attached to these data
from this point of view is due largely to the lack of other and
more satisfactory figures. The statistics are altogether appropriate, on the contrary, for following the building activities of
the Government or the work of the bodies from which they are
obtained, and as such they are a very useful source of information on housing policy. It is therefore of interest to develop
them on similar lines to those of other statistics.
Owing to their particular object, these statistics give, more
often than others, not only figures of the buildings finished or
plans approved during specified periods, but of all building in
progress at fixed dates. They often give also detailed information on the nature of new buildings, the cost of production,
the way in which the necessary capital was raised, etc.
As a rule, all these various statistics are based on two units,
1
One of the most remarkable examples of these statistics are those
compiled in Great Britain by the Ministry of Health on the basis of the
reports of the local authorities. The method of compiling the statistics
differs somewhat according to the regulations in force when the work
was undertaken (1919 Act, 1923 and 1924 Acts, and 1925 Act) and
according as the subsidies are granted by the State and the local authorities together or by the latter alone. Data are given of the work in
progress at a given date, a distinction being drawn between the houses
for which only the foundations have been completed, those which have
been roofed in, and those completed ready for occupation. For the
buildings undertaken under the 1919 Act a distinction is also made
between houses of which the first-floor joists have been laid, those
ready for roofing, and those ready for painting. These statistics are
completed by more summary data on non-subsidised building. (Communication from the Ministry of Health.)

— 87 —
the building and the dwelling, which are analysed side by side.
This makes it possible to examine the problems from two
different points of view, which are mutually complementary.
It may be added that in some cases use is made of a third basic
unit, the room. There is no need to return here to the definition of these basic units, for it is clear that, from the point of
view of the possibility of comparison, there is every advantage
in adopting strictly the same definitions as those suggested for
other branches of housing statistics 1. Some difficulties may
arise in this respect owing to the fact that the statistics of
building activity are derived from the working of administrative
services. But it seems that the definitions proposed are sufficiently near to the actual fact to satisfy the practical requirements of an administrative department.
In certain cases, finally, an attempt is made to measure the
importance of building operations, by referring not to the
number of buildings, dwellings, or rooms, but only to the total
cost. Information of this kind is found most often in the
statistics of building permits, being based on the declarations
made to the authorities on the estimated cost of construction 2.
In the statistics relating to the work done, this type of information usually expresses the amount for which the property
is insured 3 ; in the statistics of subsidised building and those of
building by special institutions, these figures are calculated
from the credits granted by the Governments and the expenditure of the institutions. Information on the value of buildings
is usually expressed in the form of totals for all buildings. If
these are compared with the number of buildings, dwellings, or
rooms to which they relate, the average cost of building these
various units may be calculated.
This information is particularly of interest for following the
activity of the building industry, for it gives, on the one hand,
a means of estimating the value of authorised or completed work,
and on the other, a view of the volume of this activity which
is often more exact than might be obtained from the other
basic units. The work in volved in the erection of a building,
1

See Chapter II, pp. 31, 35, and 36, and Chapter III, pp. 43-45.
For example, statistics of Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands,
New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and the United States. In
Canada and the Union of South Africa, these data are the only ones
published on a national basis.
3
Statistics of Basle and Zurich.
2

— 88 - or even of a dwelling or room, may vary considerably according to circumstances, whereas the cost of a building
operation, or the value of a building, represents fairly closely
the total labour and material consumed. It is necessary,
however, if information of this kind is to be usable, that the
monetary unit should remain stable. When prices are rapidly
fluctuating, the figures cannot serve as an index of building
activity unless this source of error can be eliminated, which is
always a delicate operation. In this respect an interesting
experiment made in the United States may be mentioned 1.
Reference may finally be made to statistics of an altogether
different kind, prepared in certain cases, which may also give
useful information on fluctuations in the total housing supply.
These are the statistics obtained from financial registers kept
in connection with the taxation of house property. The increase and decrease in taxable value may in fact be used to
determine the number of cases of building, transformation and
demolition of dwelling houses. If the system of taxation in
force applies to every building without exception, a complete
return may be obtained of newly-built houses as well as of those
demolished. The figures relating to the transformation of
buildings will be much less satisfactory, for they will relate
only 'to operations of sufficient scope to affect the taxable
value of the property, and many changes in use or alterations
will thus be left out of account. These statistics have moreover
the disadvantage that they can be compiled only after some
delay. In the absence of more satisfactory data, however,
they may be of appreciable service 2.
1
The method consists in the first place in expressing, in the form of
an index number (base : 1914), a series of estimates made once a year
of the aggregate value of all building, as shown by the permits issued
by t h e public authorities during the year. Next an index number of
the cost of construction (base : 1914) is calculated by combining an
index number of the wholesale prices of building materials with an
index number of the-cost of labour (wages) in the proportion determined
by a special investigation into the cost of construction of different
types of building. By relating t h e index number of the estimated
aggregate value of all buildings constructed to t h a t of t h e cost of construction, an index number is obtained expressing the approximate
amount of building done. (Monthly Labour Review, J u l y 1925, pp.
173-176.)
2
The best known example of these statistics is t h a t of France, where
for each department, under the head of " increase in taxable value " ,
the number of whole buildings and the rental value of buildings and
additions to buildings, are given, and under the head of " decrease in
taxable value " , the number of cases of total demolition and the rental.
value of total or partial demolitions (houses and factories separately).

— 89 —
All the statistics here reviewed are compiled periodically.
As a rule, the smaller the field covered, the shorter the interval ;
thus purely local statistics are usually compiled once a month,
whereas statistics covering the whole country are compiled
only once a quarter or once a year. From the point of view
of international comparison, annual statistics appear sufficient.

CLASSIFICATION OF BUILDINGS AND DWELLINGS AND
COMPARISON WITH OTHER DATA

The fundamental classification which predominates in all
statistics of building activity is that based on the kind of work
involved. As a rule, three large classes are defined — construction, transformation, and demolition. In addition, the cases
of transformation are divided into those which result in increasing the stock of dwellings and those which result in reducing it,
so that the actual fluctuation in the supply may be determined.
It should be observed that the data to be placed under these
two heads should not, in theory at least, be collected in the
same way if the object is to determine the activity of the building industry, as when it is to determine the fluctuations in the
total housing supply. If it is proposed to obtain a view of
the total activity in the building industry, the figure to be
sought is the total number of buildings and dwellings actually
in hand at a given date. In point of fact, this sort of information is rarely given 1 . In the absence of such data, use may be
made of the number of dwellings in respect of which work has
been begun or completed during a given period, remembering,
however, that the record must always be taken at the same
stage of the work, whether the beginning or the end.
If the fluctuations in the total housing supply are to be
determined, on the contrary, the return ought to relate to the
moment when the stock is actually affected by the building
operations. Cases of construction must, therefore, be recorded
when the work is completed, and those of demolition when it
is begun. In cases of transformation, the work should, properly speaking, be recorded both when it is started and when
it is completed, so that, first, the dwellings made temporarily
1
There are a few examples : for instance, in the statistics of the
municipalities of Amsterdam, Oslo, and Warsaw.

— 90 —
uninhabitable may be deducted from the stock, and then those
again made available be added. But as this work of transformation usually does not last long, nor does it always prevent
the premises from being inhabited, the method is seldom applied,
and it is considered sufficient to give the net result of the work
when completed.
It should be observed that in certain cases this classification
is extended by a few supplementary subdivisions ; thus a distinction is made between new buildings on vacant land, and
rebuilding on land already built on \ and in some municipalities alterations are classified according to their special characteristics 2. For purposes of international comparison, however,
it seems unnecessary to enter into these details.
The different basic units may also be classified according to
the persons or institutions undertaking the work. This classification is only used in some countries 3, being applied sometimes to the building unit, sometimes to the dwelling unit, and
sometimes to both. The systems of classification vary somewhat in the different cases, but in general there are three main
classes. The first two relate to work undertaken in the interests of the community, either by the authorities or by public
utility societies, and the third to work undertaken in private
interests by building societies or private persons. The subdivisions of these classes are to be considered rather as differences in detail, often the result of local conditions 4 . For
purposes of international comparison, it seems that these can

1

E.g. statistics of the Netherlands, Stockholm, and Warsaw.
Thus in the statistics for the municipality of Vienna, a distinction
is made between work of enlargement, increasing the height of the
building, fitting u p of attics, internal alterations. In those of the
municipality of Basle, special headings are given to work relating to
kitchens, laundry accommodation and bath-rooms ; roofs, terraces, and
balconies ; and, finally, changes in use classified according to the new
use of the premises.
3
E.g. statistics of certain municipalities of Germany, Netherlands,
Switzerland, and those of Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, and Oslo.
4
A distinction is for instance often made between the authorities,
i.e. between the State and the municipality ; or in some cases, as in
Copenhagen, building actually undertaken by the authorities themselves
is distinguished from t h a t merely subsidised. In Prague, a distinction
is made between building societies of officials, of workers, and
others. In Zurich, public utility societies are separated from others.
In The Hague, private building undertaken for speculative purposes is
distinguished from t h a t undertaken by private persons to satisfy their
own needs.
2

— 91 —
be neglected and that the three large categories already mentioned may be considered sufficient.
The other systems of classification to bé found in statistics
of building activity relate to the actual characteristics of the
buildings and dwellings. They involve most of the distinctions
already mentioned in the discussion of the statistics of buildings
and dwellings.
Buildings are classified principally according to their use, a
distinction being made as a rule between those intended exclusively for living in, those intended only partly for living in, and
those intended solely for other purposes. (The latter group
remains outside the field of housing statistics.) In some cases
other factors are taken into account : the nature of the building
(one- or two-family houses, buildings with several flats, buildings intended for occupation by other than family groups,
mixed buildings containing shops, workshops or offices) x or its
size, which may be indicated by a classification according to
the number of stories, dwellings, or rooms 2, or by a statement
of the superficial area 3. Some statistics, finally, give details
of the materials of which the building is made 4, of the domestic
equipment (means of lighting and heating, running water), the
available subsidiary rooms, adjoining gardens, etc. 5
For dwellings, the obvious system of classification, which is
to be found in the majority of more detailed statistics, is that
based on the number of rooms 6. Sometimes the analysis is
1
Thus the statistics of the chief Swiss municipalities classify dwelling
houses according as they are intended for one family, two families, or
several families ; and mixed buildings according as the premises intended
for other purposes than habitation are shops, inns or restaurants, or
workshops. In the United States statistics of building permits, a
distinction is drawn between one-family dwellings, two-family dwellings,
one-family and two-family dwellings with stores combined, multifamily dwellings, multi-family dwellings with stores combined, hotels,
and lodging-houses.
2
This threefold classification is to be found, for instance, in the
Swedish statistics, as in those of the municipalities of Basle and Oslo.
Buildings are classified according to the number of dwellings in the
German statistics, and in those of Prague ; according to the number
of rooms in the Stockholm and Zurich statistics.
3
Statistics of Berlin and Oslo.
4
The Swedish statistics, for instance, distinguish between buildings
of stone and wood, the Berlin statistics between permanent and temporary buildings.
5
Statistics of Basle and Oslo.
6
National statistics of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway,
and Sweden and the statistics of Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, and certain
municipalities of Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries.

— 92 —
carried so far as to give the habitable area *, but this is too
complicated an operation to be of general application, so that
in spite of its interest it cannot be recommended for international purposes. The classification of dwellings according
to the number of rooms, on the contrary, seems fundamental,
and it is regrettable that in certain cases it is not adopted in
the final tables of fluctuations in the supply of dwellings. Every
precaution must of course be taken to ensure that the definition
of the term " room " (serving here as a unit for measuring
size) has absolutely the same value as that adopted for this
purpose in the censuses of dwellings.
In some cases there are certain other systems of classification
of less general interest, based, for instance, on the degree of
comfort of the dwelling (specification of certain subsidiary
rooms and domestic equipment 2 ), or on the rent-class to which
the dwelling belongs 3.
Finally, in certain statistics, the room is taken as the basic
unit, and is also classified according to its characteristics. It
is fairly usual to distinguish between the three classes already
suggested : living-rooms, kitchens, subsidiary rooms, although
the delimitation of these classes does not always conform to
that proposed here.
In some cases, a separate heading is
given to attics 4 or workrooms 5.
Once a regular return of the exact fluctuations in the total
housing supply has been organised, it may further be useful, if
its real significance is to be understood, to compare it with other
data. Thus the number of new dwellings of different sizes, or
of new buildings, may be compared with the total supply at a
given date (determined by a census), and the percentage increase may be calculated. An even more significant comparison
is that between the newly-created dwellings and the demand
to be satisfied. For this purpose, the number of new dwellings
available may simply be expressed as a function of the population of the locality, or the changes in the total housing supply
may be compared with the changes in the population for whom
these dwellings are intended. If bias in the results is to be
1
2
3
4
5

Statistics of the municipalities of Basle and Frankfurt.
Statistics of Sweden and the municipality of Basle.
Statistics of the municipality of The Hague.
Swiss municipal statistics.
Statistics of the municipality of Vienna (post war).

— 93 —
avoided, however, it is preferable to calculate the ratios between
certain units rather than others. Thus, for accuracy, the number of new dwellings should be compared with that of the
households for which these dwellings are intended, and if it is
wished to make a comparison with the number of persons, it
seems more just to relate this number to the number of new
living rooms. Moreover, a distinction should be made between
persons of different age groups, for these differ in importance
from the point of view of density of occupation.
The work of calculating these ratios is obviously part of the
supplementary research to be undertaken by the national
statistical services. They cannot be too strongly recommended
to undertake this work as often as possible, for they are in the
best position to know the data which can be compared with
each other and the restrictions to be observed in interpreting
the rates and indexes obtained.

CONCLUSIONS

T H E DIFFERENT HOUSING STATISTICS

The various sets of statistics forming what have been called
here " housing statistics " still constitute only an extremely
heterogeneous whole, and the problem of standardising them
arises both in the national and in the international field. These
statistics relate to very different subjects, often aim at different
ends, are undertaken by different services, depending sometimes on the central authorities, sometimes on the municipal
authorities, and they therefore demand in the first place that
they should be co-ordinated among themselves in such a way
as to form a purely homogeneous system for each country. But
while this work of standardisation is being carried out, it is
essential to take into account also the needs of international
comparison, which are steadily growing in importance.
Housing statistics are unquestionably built up on general
censuses, from which a complete and detailed view of the total
supply of existing dwellings and their characteristics can be
obtained, and of the prevailing housing conditions. These
censuses may also give information on rents and the state of the
housing market at the date of the investigation. But owing
to their wide scope, they are carried out only at fairly distant
intervals, as a rule every ten years, and it is therefore essential
to complete them by periodical returns, which can be used to
follow changes in rents (summary rent returns) and the constant
changes in the housing market (special censuses of vacant
dwellings, statistics of housing offices, etc.). At the same time
it is necessary to be able to follow changes in the total housing
supply which occur during the interval between censuses owing
to new construction, the transformation of existing premises,
and demolition or accidental destruction. This is the purpose
of the statistics of fluctuations in total housing supply.

— 96 —
These various branches of statistics supplement each other.
It therefore seems of particular importance that they should
be undertaken on a general systematic plan, but it is not essential that they should be compiled by one and the same service ;
all that is needed is a definite agreement between the competent
institutions. If, however, one branch is not yet within the
competence of the national authorities, as often happens in the
case of periodical statistics, the necessary measures ought to
be taken to ensure not only uniformity in the data compiled
by the municipal authorities, but also their compilation in a
sufficient number of localities with the appropriate characteristics for them to be considered representative of the country as a
whole.
The various branches of housing statistics serve above all to
throw light on and direct housing policy, but they do so in
varying degree. The censuses afford a complete and sound
basis on which to judge of the general situation and base longperiod measures. The periodical returns make it possible to
follow immediate results and take the necessary measures to
deal with current problems. All the statistics form a valuable
source of information for any town-planning action and any
kind of social study.

T H E STATISTICAL

UNITS

If it is proposed to make a coherent whole of these different
statistics, it is necessary in the first place to standardise the
fundamental conceptions on which they are based. The first
task undertaken here has therefore been to define the different
units to be found in housing statistics, and this in as precise
a manner as possible, but yet so widely that they can be used
for the different branches of the statistics and in all countries.
Six principal units have been recognised ; the dwelling, the
building with dwellings, the registered property (comprising
buildings with dwellings), the room, the household, and the
person. According to the branch of statistics in which these
are used, they may serve either as basic units, i.e. the unit
which is counted, measured, and classified according to its
different characteristics, or as the unit of measurement, i.e.
the unit which serves precisely as a standard for measuring the
basic unit. Among these various units there are two which

— 97 —
seem particularly important, those of the dwelling and the
household ; for it is one of the great principles of housing policy
to secure its own dwelling for each household.
The dwelling, the fundamental unit in housing statistics, may
be defined either by the intended use of the premises or by the
use actually made of them. The idea of intended use seems
more interesting, however, for it brings out better the true —
and, so to speak, permanent — characteristics of the premises.
But in some cases it is difficult to apply, or even impossible or
absurd, and then it must be supplemented by the idea of actual
use. Adopting this compromise, the definition proposed as an
international standard will be as follows : the dwelling is, in
principle, constituted by a separate set of premises which,
whatever their use, are intended for the occupation of a household, and have an independent entrance either from the street
or from a public passage or staircase. Premises separated off
from these, but clearly intended to form part of the dwelling,
will be included with it. Premises not intended for living in,
but used for this, will be considered to have as many dwellings
as there are households occupying them.
The same ideas of intended use and, subsidiarily, of actual
use serve to distinguish buildings with dwellings from other
buildings. A building with dwellings is considered to be any
covered construction, whether isolated or separated from others
by party-walls reaching from the foundations to the roof, intended altogether or in part for living in, or actually used for
this purpose. (Dwellings consisting of huts, tents, wagons,
caravans, ships, barges, etc., which are not covered by this
definition, should be placed, if need be, in a separate class.)
Registered properties are clearly delimited by the land
registration offices, and housing statistics may, if need be,
analyse the properties on which buildings with dwellings are
situated.
With respect to the room — a completely enclosed space —
it is necessary to distinguish between three main types of rooms
with fundamentally different characteristics, the basis being
the intended use of the premises. These are (a) living-rooms
(bedrooms, dining-rooms, parlours, etc.), which are the fundamental factor in dwellings ; (b) kitchens, the characteristics of
which vary according to district and social class and therefore
necessitate a special heading, and (c) subsidiary rooms, which,
although of secondary importance, are not without influence

— 98 —
on the comfort and convenience of a dwelling ; servants' rooms
and habitable attics are counted with living-rooms ; alcoves, on
the contrary, are considered to be subsidiary rooms.
The household is defined as a group of persons who together
organise their domestic life separately from other persons. A
distinction should, however, be made between family households and non-family households, owing to the fundamental
difference in the housing conditions involved. It seems that the
best line between the two is where the number of outside boarders
exceeds the number of members of the family and domestic
servants. In defining the household itself, it is more important
to take into account the fact that a person shares in the life of
the household than the form of the contract concluded between
the occupants of the dwelling concerning their right to the
premises.
As the individual is considered to be a member of the household, it seems preferable to count those who ordinarily live in
the dwelling, rather than those who happen to be there on the
night of the census, for this gives a more representative view
of the actual situation. The occupants of a dwelling will
therefore be taken to include persons who, although absent on
the date of the census, usually live there ; but persons who
are there only temporarily will be excluded.
In addition to these various basic units and units of measurement, account must also be taken of the manner in which the
geographical units are defined, within which the various housing
problems are analysed. The urban aggregation, as usually
conceived on the basis of political and administrative boundaries, does not seem altogether satisfactory. For this almost
inevitably leaves out certain districts of an altogether urban
nature, while, on the other hand, it makes the geographical
unit include certain rural districts. As housing problems differ
fundamentally in urban and rural districts, it would be useful
to adopt an entirely new definition specifically for the purposes
of housing statistics. The urban aggregation would then include the whole of the area within which there is no kind of
rural undertaking, most of the inhabitants, whether by their
occupations or as consumers, being in direct and constant touch
with the centre. It might perhaps be well to subdivide these
geographical units into a number of smaller units or quarters,
according to the prevailing type of construction : continuous
structures (blocks of houses with several stories), semi-detached

— 99 —
buildings (houses of lesser elevation with gardens on one or
more sides), detached buildings (houses of moderate elevation
standing in their own grounds), with perhaps a separate heading
for business and factory quarters.

CENSUSES OF DWELLINGS

It seems at first sight that the work of taking housing censuses
might be considerably reduced by limiting it to enumerating
the basic unit and recording certain essential characteristics,
the other points of detail being studied by means of enquiries
on the sampling system undertaken at the same time as the
census itself. The latter information would be obtained with
quite sufficient exactitude, and the economy in work so realised
would be considerable.
On this principle the census of dwellings would entail only
two classifications, according to the intended and actual use
of the premises and according to their size.
The first of these classifications is used above all to define
a certain number of fundamental large categories, offering
definite headings under which to record the data collected by
those national services which cannot accept as wide a definition
of the dwelling as that suggested here. This arrangement will
make international comparison possible, at least in the fields
covered by the different statistics. The classification might
take the following form :
(1) Dwellings intended for family habitations :
(a) used solely for this purpose ;
(ft) used partly for this and partly for other purposes ;
(c) not used — i.e. vacant ;
(rf) temporarily used for other purposes t h a n habitation
(without structural alteration) ;
(e) used for other t h a n family habitation (hotels, etc.).
(2) Dwellings intended for non-family habitation :
(a) used accordingly ;
(ft) used for family habitation ;
(c) not used — i.e. vacant.
(3) Premises not intended for habitation :
(a) b u t used for family habitation ;
(6) b u t used for other purposes t h a n family habitation.

The classification of dwellings according to size is altogether
fundamental, for they differ markedly among themselves from
this point of view, and the differences are of great practical
importance. The simplest and most usual way of expressing

— 100 —
the size of a dwelling is to give the number of its rooms, but
then the nature of the rooms taken into account must be clearly
indicated. Those referred to above as living-rooms, as also the
kitchen (mentioned separately), seem most suitable for this
purpose. The process of measurement might be further improved by taking into account certain subsidiary rooms, such
as bath-rooms, closets, alcoves, and lobbies, but enumerating
them all without distinction under an additional heading, or
counting them as only a fraction of all the rooms in a dwelling.
For other than family dwellings, a distinction should also be
made between the large common-rooms and living-rooms of
the ordinary size.
The number of rooms in a dwelling is, however, only a somewhat rudimentary form of measurement, the significance of
which may vary markedly with the size of the rooms themselves.
Detailed information on this point would thus much increase
the value of the above data. It could be obtained without too
much work by undertaking systematic measurements in a
certain number of dwellings selected on the sampling method.
All the other characteristics of dwellings which it is of interest to know may be studied by the sampling method : the
existence of the subsidiary rooms of most importance from the
point of view of comfort (closets, bath-rooms, laundry accommodation) ; domestic equipment (means of lighting and heating,
running water, drains); the neighbourhood of a garden ; the
story on which the dwelling is situated ; the position of the
dwelling with respect to the street (on the front, at the side, or
on the back) ; the nature of the building containing the dwelling (one- or two-family houses or blocks of flats). Similarly, the
nature of the right to occupy the dwelling may be studied :
rented dwellings (and among these, dwellings or parts of dwellings sub-let and those let furnished) ; dwellings occupied by
their owners ; service dwellings ; and those occupied free of
charge.

CENSUSES OF BUILDINGS WITH DWELLINGS

Building censuses are included in housing statistics only so
far as they relate to buildings with dwellings. They too might
be somewhat simplified, on the principle already advocated for
the censuses of dwellings. Among the various systems of

— 101 —
classification at present used in statistics of this kind, it would
probably be sufficient to keep only two. The first would be
that which distinguishes between dwellings used altogether for
habitation, those of which only a part, although a relatively
important part, is used for this purpose, and finally those in
which only a small part has been equipped, with a view to
housing a caretaker, for instance. The second system would
be that based on the nature of the building. Buildings used
solely or principally for habitation would first be classified
according as they are used for family habitation or non-family
habitation. The first of these classes would be further subdivided into buildings for one or two families and those with
several flats ; or, even better, they would be classified according
to the number of dwellings as well as according to the number
of rooms. Buildings for other than family habitation would be
grouped according to the bodies occupying them (hotels and
boarding houses, hostels and almshouses, hospitals and
nursing homes, educational institutions, religious institutions,
barracks, prisons).
The other characteristics of buildings would then be studied
by the sampling method. This might, for instance, be used to
bring out the number of stories in the buildings, the building
materials used, their arrangement with respect to each other
and to the street — leaving out, however, questions of internal
arrangement, which seem better dealt with under the head of
statistics of dwellings. It would also be interesting to examine
buildings from the legal standpoint, distinguishing between the
different methods of acquisition (purchase, inheritance, construction, other methods) and showing the personality of the
owner (whether individual ownership or non-individual, and
in the latter case whether a company run for profit, a private
society, or a local or national public authority). These last
forms of analysis may also be undertaken, it should be observed,
with the registered property as a basic unit, as, owing to its
legal nature, it lends itself well to this type of enquiry.
CENSUSES OF HOUSING

CONDITIONS

The study of housing conditions may be divided into four
parts, each of which involves a new analysis, which may be
combined with the others. For the first two a new basic unit
is introduced : the person, in addition to those of the dwelling

— 102 —
and building, so far the only ones taken into consideration. In
the last two yet another unit, that of the household, is used.
The first analysis consists of a simple classification of persons
according to the different characteristics of the dwellings they
occupy : the intended and actual use of the dwellings, the size
of the dwellings, and the other characteristics of the dwellings
examined by the sampling method.
This analysis is followed by that of the density of occupation.
The degree of occupation of the dwellings is first studied by
classifying them both according to the number of living-rooms
{including kitchens) and according to the number of persons
occupying them. The occupants are also classified in the same
way, so as to bring out the conditions in which the population
is housed.
In order to express in more condensed form the relation
between the number of rooms in a dwelling and the number
of occupants, a coefficient of density is calculated for each
dwelling, generally in the form of the number of persons per
room. The dwellings and occupants are then classified
according to the coefficients relating to them. The average
coefficients are also calculated.
These various data at present constitute the most significant
statistics of existing housing conditions. It should be observed,
however, that the simple ratio between the number of livingrooms in a dwelling and the number of its occupants is still
only a somewhat approximate measure of the degree of occupation. It would be interesting to be able to take into account
also subsidiary rooms, and to make certain distinctions between
persons according to age, sex, and the relationship between them.
The study of density also involves examining the degree of
occupation of buildings, so as to determine how far persons
are crowded in a single building. For this it is sufficient to
classify, on the one hand, the occupants according to the number
occupying one and the same building, and, on the other hand,
the buildings according to the number of persons housed in
them. It would also be possible to calculate for the different
types of building the average number of persons living in one
and the same building.
Finally, the density of occupation in the whole of the urban
aggregation might be examined by comparing the area of the
locality with the number of its occupants, but these calculations
fall somewhat outside the scope of housing statistics.

— 103 —
The two remaining sections of statistics of housing conditions
resume the analyses already indicated, but introduce a new
idea, that of the household, and bring out its characteristics.
The relation between housing conditions and the composition
of households is first studied, distinguishing between members
of the family, other relatives and friends, domestic servants,
employees, and boarders. The special conditions created by
the fact that several households may live together in one dwelling are then considered, for which purpose the housing conditions of such households are first examined, considering them
as so many independent units, and then the conditions of the
principal household are compared with those of the subsidiary
household.
In the last section an attempt is made to show the housing
conditions of different social classes. For this purpose persons
are usually classified according to the social status of the head
of the household to whom they belong ; but in this respect it is
difficult to establish any international standard, for the question goes definitely beyond the scope of housing statistics. It
need merely be indicated that in principle this classification
should rest on a threefold criterion ; the occupation, the status
in the occupation, and the income of the head of the household,
and that the following main classes should be distinguished :
unskilled workers, skilled workers (with perhaps a separate
heading for certain industries, such as the textile and mining
industries), artisans, the middle classes, the comfortably-off,
and the well-to-do. In the absence of such a classification, a
distinction according to the quarter of the town might give
some information on these points in localities where the separation of the social classes by quarters is relatively clear.
STATISTICS OF RENTS

The statistics of rents consist essentially in a classification of
dwellings according to their rents, combined, if need be, with
a classification according to the different characteristics of the
dwellings and a determination of the average rent for the different types of dwellings. Two types of investigation are undertaken for this purpose — general censuses and periodical summary returns. The first are taken at relatively distant intervals,
either in connection with housing censuses or as special enquiries
covering all rented dwellings and all urban centres, and bring

— 104 —
out in detail the relations between rents and the different
characteristics of the dwellings and their occupants. The
second are undertaken at closer intervals, as a rule once a year,
but are limited to a certain number of selected dwellings in
various towns and take into consideration only the essential
characteristics of these dwellings — in particular their size —
the chief object being to follow fluctuations in rents.
The present study has however left out of account data
obtained from estimates of fluctuations in rents made with a
view to constructing index numbers of the cost of living, as
well as those furnished by enquiries into the conditions of life
of certain social classes, both of which belong to other fields
than that of housing statistics.
The basic unit for statistics of rents is the dwelling. As the
information on rents is usually obtained from the leases in
force, it is natural to consider that the dwelling unit coincides with
all the rooms covered by a lease. This definition obviously differs
somewhat from that suggested for the other branches of housing
statistics, but the differences do not seem to be very serious.
More important differences arise out of the very varying manner in which the term " r e n t " is interpreted according to local
custom. The logical standard seems to be that of including with
the rent only what is strictly connected with the renting of the
premises, as well as payments for the caretaking and internal
maintenance of the building, if these are charged for separately.
On the other hand, all additional charges for heating, lighting,
running water, and the removal of rubbish, which are often
made together with the rent, should be systematically excluded,
as well as rates and taxes, unless these are expressly payable
by the tenant under the law.
Separate headings should also be made for the rents paid for
dwellings let furnished, and for separate rooms or parts of flats
sub-let by the principal tenant, as these two forms of occupation
have special features which need to be studied separately.
As regards the actual classification of dwellings according to
rent, it is not possible to lay down a definite international
standard owing to the differences in the monetary units used
for defining the classes. It seems reasonable, however, that
the number of classes should not be less than about ten, and
not more than about twenty. The average rent, on the contrary, will be calculated for the different types of dwellings as
defined in the statistics of dwellings and of housing conditions.

— 105 —
It should be added that if it is proposed to compare the average
level of rents in the whole of one locality with that in other
localities, or in the same locality at different dates, it is necessary to eliminate any influence of changes in the proportion of
large to small dwellings. For this purpose the average rents
of dwellings in each size-group must first be calculated, and
then a weighted average of these averages, the same weights
being chosen for each locality in accordance with a common
standard.
STATISTICS OF THE HOUSING MARKET

Here, too, there are, on the one hand, the general censuses
of vacant dwellings which form an integral part of the decennial
censuses of dwellings, and, on the other hand, the enquiries
undertaken at closer intervals on a more limited basis, and
confined to vacant dwellings only.
The term " vacant dwelling " should cover any habitable
dwelling which is unoccupied at the date of the census and
immediately available for occupation. Dwellings which, although vacant at the time of the enquiry, are already let for
a later date will, however, be excluded. Dwellings to be let
furnished and one-family houses for sale should preferably be
classified apart, as they belong to a very special market. Single
rooms to let, although not actually covered by the definition
of a dwelling, might also be placed under a special heading.
The fundamental classification for vacant dwellings is again
that based on the number of rooms. A more detailed analysis
of the characteristics of the dwellings might be undertaken, if
necessary, in connection with the general censuses, on the model
of that used for occupied dwellings.
As the figures of vacant dwellings are not very significant in
themselves, they are generally related to the total number of
dwellings in the locality. Care must be used in interpreting
this percentage, however, for its significance varies according
to circumstances. The relation between the number of vacant
dwellings and the housing needs of the population is more
significant — in other words, the ratio of supply to demand in
the housing market. The determination of the second factor,
however, is of some difficulty, although an attempt has been
made to estimate it in certain municipalities on the basis of
various statistics relating to changes in the population.

— 106 —
The statistics of housing supply and demand recorded in the
public housing offices are used above all to illustrate the growth
and work of these institutions.
To make these data more comparable, it is necessary to define
exactly the terms " supply of " and " demand for " dwellings,.
and to distinguish, for instance, between urgent demands (those
of persons without a dwelling, or about to leave that which
they occupy) and less urgent demands, as also between the
actual supply of immediately available dwellings and the anticipated supply of those available in a few weeks.
It would also be desirable, if possible, to show separately for
dwellings of different sizes or in different rent groups : the
number of applications (supply and demand separately) not
satisfied at the beginning of a given period, preferably one
month ; the number of applications received during that period ;
the number satisfied through the public housing office ; the
number withdrawn by the applicant ; and the number struck
off the list because not renewed within the period prescribed
by the regulations. It would also be necessary for the offices
to check the register systematically in order to strike off applications no longer valid, and the rules adopted for this purpose
should be as nearly the same everywhere as possible.
The figures of applications not satisfied at the end of each
period, or of those recorded during the period, are often used
to construct an index by which the fluctuations in the housing
market may be followed with more or less reliability. For
this purpose the ratio of supply to demand is generally taken,
so as to eliminate in some measure any influence on the absolute
figures of the growth in the work of the offices. Owing to the
imperfection of this correction, it is as well, however, to interpret
these indexes only with the greatest reserve.
For the sake of completeness, reference may also be made
to certain indexes based on simple qualitative estimates. This
procedure, which has been of some service in other fields, might
also prove useful in that of the housing market.
STATISTICS OF FLUCTUATIONS IN THE TOTAL HOUSING SUPPLY

The principal source of these statistics is the data derived
from the work of the public authorities responsible for supervising the construction of dwelling houses. The figures are based
on the supervision exercised either before the building is under-

— 107 —
taken — the submission of plans or granting of building permits
— or after the work is completed — check that the construction
complies with the approved plans or grant of a permit to occupy.
The statistics relating to the work actually done are obviously
more exact than those based on building permits, for there is
always some delay, not entirely free from uncertainity, between
the granting of the permit and the completion of the work.
In addition to these statistics, reference may also be made
to those relating solely to building carried out with the assistance
of the authorities or through the medium of public services or
private organisations for building cheap dwellings. These data,
again, give more information on the work of the bodies in
question than on fluctuations in the total housing supply.
The various statistics of fluctuations in the total housing
supply are based on two units, the building with dwellings and
the dwelling, which are analysed from different points of view.
In the first place, the nature of the work done, or to be done,
is brought out (construction, transformation resulting in an
increase in the supply, that resulting in a reduction, and demolition). It should be noted, however, that for the purpose of
determining fluctuations in the total housing supply, it is necessary to record the operations at the moment when they actually
affect it. Work of construction should therefore normally be
recorded when the work is completed, and that of demolition
when it is begun. The work of transformation should normally
entail a double record, namely, when it is begun and when it is
completed. In practice, however, the latter is considered
sufficient.
The second classification is based on the nature of the parties
who undertake the work (public authorities, public utility
.societies, companies run for profit, private persons). These
analyses are further combined with classifications based on the
fundamental characteristics of the dwellings (number of livingrooms, including kitchens) and of the buildings (one-family
houses ; blocks of flats ; buildings intended solely, principally,
or subsidiarily for habitation). In addition to these systems
of classification a distinction is also sometimes made between
the dwellings according as they have certain subsidiary rooms
and domestic equipment, or according to rent-group, while the
buildings may be classified according to the material used for
construction, the number of stories, of dwellings, or of rooms.
Finally, these various data are sometimes completed by

— 108 —

information on the total value of the buildings considered, the
cost of construction being a useful measure of their importance.
In the absence of other statistics, these figures may also be used
to estimate fluctuations in the total housing supply, provided
that they are suitably corrected to eliminate the influence of
fluctuations in prices.
*

*

These are the conclusions to which a study of the different
housing statistics at present published in the principal countries
has led. They have been formulated on the basis of the most
recent tendencies observed both in the particular field of housing
statistics and in that of statistics in general. Without
claiming to constitute a final programme, it is believed that
the principles adopted here may provide a first foundation for
standardising (both nationally and internationally) the different
sets of statistics.

APPENDIX

List of Official Statistical Reports relating to Housing Used in
the Present Study l
I. —

GENERAL CENSUSES.

AUSTRALIA
Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, taken for the night
between the 2nd and 3rd April 1911. Vols. XVIII to XXV. Ministry of
State for Town and Territories, Bureau of Census and Statistics.
Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, taken for the night
between the 3rd and 4th April 1921. Vols. XVIII to XXV. Ministry of
State for Town and Territories, Bureau of Census and Statistics.
AUSTRIA
Die Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1910. Neue Folge,
österreichische Statistik, 4. Band, 1. u. 2. Heft. Herausgegeben von
der K. K. Statistischen Zentralkommission.
Ergebnisse der ausserordentlichen Volkszählung vom 31. Januar
1920. Beiträge zur Statistik der Republik Oesterreich, 6. Heft. Herausgegeben von der Statistischen Zentralkommission.
Vorläufige Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 7. März 1923. Beiträge
zur Statistik der Republik Oesterreich, 12. Heft. Herausgegeben vom
Bundesamte für Statistik.
Vienna
Die Ergebnisse der Wohnungszählung in Wien vom Jahre 1916.
Herausgegeben vom Wohnungsamte der Stadt Wien.
BELGIUM
Recensement général du 31 décembre 1920. Recensement des logements dans les communes de 10.000 habitants et plus. Ministère de
l'Intérieur et de l'Hygiène, Service de la statistique générale.
Brussels
Recensement général de la population ; recensement spécial des
logements (Bruxelles). Les recensements de 1910. Administration communale de Bruxelles, Service de la population.
BULGARIA
Recensement des bâtiments et des logements dans le Royaume de
Bulgarie au 31 décembre 1920. Royaume de Bulgarie, Direction générale
de la statistique.
1
This list comprises the chief national reports published since 19091910, and the. reports published since that date by selected important
municipalities in the different countries.

— 110 —
CANADA
Fifth Census of Canada, 1911. Ministry of Trade and Commerce,
Census and Statistics Office.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Prague
Soupis b y t u v Praze, podle stavu z 15. unora 1921. Statisticka k o mise hlavniho mesta Prahy. (Statistics of Dwellings in Prague at the
Census of 15 F e b r u a r y 1921. Statistical Commission of Prague.)
DENMARK
Boligkommissionen af 1916, Betsenkning.
of 1916, Report.)
Boligkommissionen af 1918, Betsenkning.
of 1918, Report.)

(The Housing Commission
(The Housing Commission,

Copenhagen
Statistisk Aarbog for Kobenhavn, Frederiksberg og Gjentofte Kommune, 1924. Udgivet af Kobenhavns Statistiske Kontor. (Statistical
Yearbook for Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Gjentofte, 1924. Published
by the Copenhagen Statistical Office.)
FINLAND
Asuntolaskenta huhtikuun 25 p : nä 1919. Suomen "Virallinen Tilasto
X X X I I . Sosialisia erikoistutkimuksia II, julkaissut Sosialihallitus.
(Housing Census of 25 April 1919. Official Statistics of Housing
Census of Finland. Special Enquiries into Social Questions. Published
by the General Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs.)
FRANCE
Resultats statistiques du recensement général de la population,
effectué le 24 mars 1900. Tome V, Habitation. Ministère du Travail et
de la Prévoyance sociale, Service du recensement.
Statistique des familles et des habitations en 1911. Ministère du Travail et de la Prévoyance sociale ; Statistique générale de la France.
GERMANY
Die Volkszählung im Deutschen Reiche am 1. Dezember 1910. Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, Band 240.
Reichswohnungszählung im Mai 1918. Statistik des Deutschen
Reichs, B a n d 287, I. u. II.
Die Kriegs-Wohnungszählung vom 16. Mai 1918 in Bayern. Heft 91
der Beiträge zur Statistik Bayerns. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen
Landesahit.
Statistisches Jahrbuch deutscher Städte. Herausgegeben von Prof.
Dr. M. Neefe, Breslau 1916.
Berlin
Die Grundstücks-Auf nähme vom 15. Oktober 1910 sowie die W o h nungs- und die Bevölkerungs-Aufnahme vom 1. Dezember 1910 in der
Stadt Berlin und 44 Nachbargemeinden. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen A m t der Stadt Berlin.
Die Grundstücks- und Wohnungsaufnahme sowie die "Volks-, Berufs-,
und Betriebszählung in Berlin im J a h r e 1925. Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amts der Stadt Berlin, Heft 1, Nr. 5.
Essen
Die Wohnungszählung in Essen vom 8. Oktober 1919. Statistisches
A m t der Stadt Essen. Nr. X I , 22-20.

— Ill —
Frankfortron-Main
Statistische Jahresübersichten der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, 1913
bis 1914. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt.
Nuremberg
Nürnberger Wohnungszählung vom 16. April 1925. Durchgeführt
und bearbeitet vom Statistischen Amt der Städte.
GREAT BRITAIN
Census of England and Wales, 1911. Vol. VI, Buildings of Various
Kinds. Cd. 6577. U.K. Ministry of Health, Registrar-General for England
and Wales, Census Office.
Report on the Twelfth Decennial Census of Scotland, 1911. Vol. II.
Cd. 6896.
Census of Ireland, 1911. General Report with tables and appendices.
Cd. 6663.
Census of England and Wales, 1921. General tables. U.K. Ministry
of Health, Registrar-General for England and Wales, Census Office.
Report on the Thirteenth Decennial Census of Scotland, 1921. Vol. I I .
HUNGARY
Recensement général de la population. Publications statistiques
hongroises, nouvelle série. Vol. 69. Publié par l'Office central de statistique du Royaume de Hongrie.
Die Bevölkerung der Städte und Gemeinden mit mehr als 20.000
Einwohnern nach der Volkszählung im J a h r e 1920. Magvar Statisztikai
Szemle, 1923, Nos. 9-12. (Hungarian Statistical Review, 1923, Nos. 9-12.)
Budapest
Népszàmlàlàs, 1920. Budapest Székesfováros Statisztikai H i v a t a lának Kiadványai, No. 52. (Volkszählung, 1920. Arbeiten des Statistischen Amtes der H a u p t und Residenzstadt Budapest, Nr. 52.)
INDIA
Census of India, 1911. Vols. I and II. Indian Government.
Census of India, 1921. Vols. I and II. Indian Government.
ITALY
Censimento della popolazione del Regno d'Italia, al 10 giugno 1911.
Ministero di Agricultura, Industria e Commercio, Direzione generale della Statistica e del Lavoro. Ufficio del Censimento.
Annuario Statistico delle Città italiane, anno VI, 1915-1916.
Il Comune di Firenze e la sua popolazione al 1 dicembre 1921. Comune
di Firenze, monografie e studi dell' Ufficio di Statistica, No. 7.
LATVIA
Riga
Die Wohnungen in Riga. Veröffentlichung des Statistischen Amtes
der Stadt Riga, Neue Folge, Nr. 3.
NETHERLANDS
Uitkomsten der negende tienjaarlijksche Volkstelling in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, december 1909 ; I en I I I Deel. Bijdragen t o t de
Statistiek van Nederland. Uitgegeven door het Centrasi Bureau voor
de Statistiek. (Results of the Ninth Census of the Population of the
Kingdom of t h e Netherlands, 31 December 1909. Parts I and I I .
Published by the Central Statistical Office.)

— 112 —
Volkstelling, 31 december 1920. Statistiek van Nederland, No. 342,
352, 378. Uitgegeven door het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek.
(Census of 31 December 1920. Netherlands Statistics, No. 342, 352 and
378. Published by the Central Statistical Office.)
Amsterdam
Verslag van de Woningtelling gehouden in m a a r t 1909, Gemeentelijke Woningdienst te Amsterdam. (Report of t h e Housing Census
of March 1909. Amsterdam Municipal Housing Department.)
Verslag van de Woningtelling gehouden in de maand October 1919.
Gemeentelijke Woningdienst te Amsterdam. (Report of t h e Housing
Census of October 1919. Amsterdam Municipal Housing Department.)
The Hague
Verslag van de Resultaten der Woningtelling gehouden tusschen 6 en
25 October 1919. Verzameling 1910, 's Gravenhage. (Report on the
Results of the Housing Census of 6-25 October 1919, a t The Hague.)
NORWAY
Folketellingen i Norge, 1. December 1910 ; tredje hefte, bebodde hus
og husholdinger.
Norges Officielle Statistik, V 188 ; u t g i t av det
Statistiske Centralbyraa. (Census of 1 December 1910 ; Inhabited
Houses and Households.)
Folketellingen i Norge 1920 ; Boligstatistikk, By er og Bygder. Norges
Officielle Statistikk, V I I 98 og 144. (Census of 1 December 1920 ;
Statistics of Dwellings, Towns, and Rural Districts.)
Statistisk aarbok for Kristiania by. Utgit av Kommunens Statistiske Kontor. (Statistical Yearbook for the Municipality of Christiania.
Published by the Municipal Statistical Office.)
POLAND
Le premier recensement général de la République polonaise du 30
septembre 1921. Logements, population, professions (volumes par
départements). Statistique de la Pologne, tomes X I V à X X . Publiée
par l'Office central de statistique de la République polonaise.
Warsaw
Resultaty Spisu nieruchomosci i mieszkan wielkiej Warszawy 1919.
Prace Wydzialu Statystycznego M. St. Warszawy. (Results of t h e
Census of Buildings and Dwellings in Warsaw in 1919. Publications
of the Warsaw Statistical Office.)
SWEDEN
1912-1914 árs allmänna bostadsräkningar ; Del I, Allmän redogörelse.
Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstatistik ; av K. Socialstyrelsen.
(General Housing Censuses, 1912-1914 ; P a r t I, General Report. Swedish Official Statistics, Social Statistics. Published by t h e Social Board.)
Allmänna bostadsräkningen ár 1920. Sveriges Officiella Statistik,
Socialstatistik ; av K. Socialstyrelsen. (General Housing Census, 1920.
Swedish Official Statistics, Social Statistics. Published by the Social
Board.)
Stockholm
Allmänna bostadsräkningen i Stockholm, den 31 december 1905.
Stockholms Stads Statistik, V, Byggnader och Bostäder. Utförd av
Stockholms Stads Statistiska Kontor. (General Census of Dwellings
in Stockholm, 31 December 1905. Statistics of the Municipality of
Stockholm ; V, Buildings and Dwellings. Stockholm Municipal Statistical Office.)
Allmänna bostadsräkningen i Stockholm, den 31 december 1910.
Stockholms Stads Statistik, V, Byggnader och Bostäder. Utförd av

— 113 —
Stockholms Stads Statistiska Kontor. (General Census of Dwellings
in Stockholm, 31 December 1910. Statistics of the Municipality of
Stockholm ; V, Buildings and Dwellings. Stockholm Municipal Statistical Office.)
Allmänna bostadsräkningen i Stockholm, den 31 december 1915—
1 januari 1916. Stockholms Stads Statistik, V, Byggnader och Bostäder.
Utförd av Stockholms Stads Statistiska Kontor. (General Census of
Dwellings in Stockholm, 31 December 1915—1 January 1916. Statistics
of the Municipality of Stockholm ; V, Buildings and Dwellings. Stockholm Municipal Statistical Office.)
Allmänna bostadsräkningen i Stockholm, den 31 december 1920—
1 januari 1921. Stockholms Stads Statistik, V, Byggnader och Bostäder. Utförd av Stockholms Stads Statistiska Kontor. (General
Census of Dwellings in Stockholm, 31 December 1920—1 January 1921.
Statistics of the Municipality of Stockholm ; V, Buildings and Dwellings.
Stockholm Municipal Statistical Office.)
SWITZERLAND
Die Ergebnisse der Eidgenössischen Volkszählung vom 1. Dezember
1910. Vol. I. Eidg. Finanz- u. Zolldepartement, Statistisches Bureau.
Hauptergebnisse der Eidgenössischen Volkszählung vom 1. Dezember
1920 ; Wohnungsbevölkerung und ortsanwesende Bevölkerung nach
Gemeinden. Eidg. Finanz- und Zolldepartement, Statistisches Bureau.
Aarau
Die Ergebnisse der Wohnungszählung vom 1. Dezember 1910, in
den Gemeinden Aarau, Baden, Ennetbaden und Brugg. Aargauische
Statistische Mitteilungen, Neue Folge, Heft III.
Basle
Die Wohnungen des Kantons Basel-Stadt am 1. Dezember 1910.
Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amtes des Kantons Basel-Stadt.
Die vorläufigen Ergebnisse der Wohnungszählung vom 1. Dezember
1920 im Kanton Basel-Stadt. Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amtes
des Kantons Basel-Stadt.
Berne
Tabellarische Uebersichten betreffend die Wohnungszählung in Bern
im Monat Mai 1916. Beiträge zur Statistik der Stadt Bern. Herausgegeben vom Städtischen Statistiker.
Die Wohnverhältnisse in der Stadt Bern, nach den Ergebnissen der
Wohnungszählung vom 1. Dezember 1920. Beiträge zur Statistik der
Stadt Bern, Heft 6 ; herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt im Auftrage
der Direktion der Industriellen Betriebe.
Saint Gall
Die Ergebnisse der Wohnungszählung vom 1. Dezember 1910, in den
Gemeinden St. Gallen, Straubenzell und Tablât. Statistik des Kantons
St. Gallen ; Heft XXXIX.
Zurich
Die Wohnungen in der Stadt Zürich am 1. Dezember 1910. Statistik der Stadt Zürich. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amte der Stadt
Zürich.
UNITED STATES
Thirteenth Census of the United States, taken in the Year 1910. Vol. I.
U.S.A. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Fourteenth Census of the United States, taken in the Year 1920.
Vols. I and II. U.S.A. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.
Abstract of the Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. U.S.A.
Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

— 114 —
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
Census of t h e Union of South Africa, 1911. Annex to General Report ;
P a r t I, Population and Dwellings. D e p a r t m e n t of Interior, Office of
Census.
Census of the European or White Races of t h e Union of South Africa,
1918 ; P a r t V I I I , Dwellings. Department of Interior, Office of Census.
Third Census of t h e Population of t h e Union of South Africa, enumerated 3 May 1921 ; P a r t I X , Dwellings. D e p a r t m e n t of Interior, Office
of Census.

II.

— SPECIAL ENQUIRIES

DENMARK
Husleje og Boligforhold, November 1922. Danmarks Statistik, Statistiske Meddeleser, 4 Raekke, 68 Bind, 1 Hefte. (Rents and Housing
in November 1922.)
FINLAND
Tehdastyöväen asunto-olot. Sosialinen aikakauskirja, 1926, No. 3, 4,
5, 8. Sosialimimsteriön julkaisema. (Housing Conditions of Industrial
Workers ; Social Review, 1926, Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 8. Published by t h e
Ministry of Social Affairs.)
GERMANY
Dresden
Die Lage des Dresdner Wohnungsmarktes im J a h r e 1907. Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amtes der Stadt Dresden ; Heft 17.
Frankfort-on-Main
Die Besiedlung des Frankfurter Stadtgebiets und die Befriedigung
des Wohnungsbedürfnisses der Bevölkerung. Beiträge zur Statistik der
S t a d t Frankfurt am Main, 11. Heft. Bearbeitet vom Direktor des Statistischen Amtes, Dr. A. Basch.
Munich
Zählung der leerstehenden Wohnungen in München am 7. November
1909. Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amtes der Stadt München ; Band
X X I I , Heft I.
Wiesbaden
Wiesbadens Wohnungs- und Grundstücksmarkt. Wiesbadener Statistik, Heft 6. Herausgegeben vom Städtischen Statistischen Amte.
GREAT

BRITAIN

London
London Statistics. London County Council.
Housing
Statistics for the year 1923-1924. London County Council.

Estates,

ITALY
Florence
Le Abitazioni e i Redditi ; il mercato delle abitazioni nel 1914 ;
l'Attività edilizia. Monografie e studi dell' Ufficio di Statistica, No. 5,
Comune di Firenze.

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NETHEBLANDS
Amsterdam
H e t technisch Woningonderzoek en de systematische perceelsbeschrijving van Amsterdam. Uitgave van den gemeentelijken woningdienst
Amsterdam. (Technical Housing Enquiry and Systematic Description
of Sites of Amsterdam. Published by the Municipal Housing Department.)
Verslag van h e t onderzoek n a a r de woningtoestanden in het z. g.
Amstellaankwartier. Gemeentelijke woningdienst, Amsterdam. (Report
on the Enquiry into Housing Conditions in the so-called " Amstellaan "
Quarter. Amsterdam Municipal Housing Department.)
NORWAY
Beboelsesforholdene i smaaleiligheter i Kristiania 1913-1914. Specialundersökelser II, utgit av Kommunens statistiske kontor. (Housing
Conditions in Small Dwellings in Christiania, 1913-1914. Special E n quiries II. Published by the Municipal Statistical Office).
SWEDEN
Undersökningar rörande de mindre bemedlades bostadsförhallanden
i vissa svenska städer, S venges Officiella Statistisk, Socialstatitik ; a v
K. Socialstyrelsen. (Enquiries into Housing Conditions of Persons
with Small Means in Certain Swedish Towns. Swedish Official Statistics, Social Statistics. Published by the Social Board.)
Hyresräkningen âr 1924 ; Del I, Hyresforhàllandena m.m. ; Del I I ,
Boendeforhâllandena. Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstatistik ;
av. K. Socialstyrelsen. (Rent Census, 1924; P a r t I, R e n t Conditions,
etc. ; P a r t II, Housing Conditions. Swedish Officiai Statistics, Social
Statistics. Published by the Social Board.)
Stockholm
Bostadsförhallanden for stadens funktionärer àr 1919. Stockholms
Stads Statistik, X, Specialundersökningar ; utförd av Stockholms
Stads Statistiska Kontor. (Housing Conditions of Municipal Officials
1919. Statistics of the Municipality of Stockholm; X , Special Enquiries.
Municipal Statistical Office.)
SWITZERLAND
Die Ergebnisse der Mietpreiserhebung von J a n u a r 1924. Sozialstatistische Mitteilungen, II. Jahrgang, 1924, Heft 2. Herausgegeben vom
Eidg. Arbeitsamt.
Basle
Die Mietpreise in der Stadt Basel 1910-1920. Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amtes des Kantons Basel-Stadt.
Berne
Die Erhebungen über den Berner Wohnungsmarkt, im J a h r e 1917.
Beiträge zur Statistik der Stadt Bern, Heft 2. Herausgegeben vom
Städtischen Statistiker.
Wohnungsvorrat und Wohnungsbedarf in der Stadt Bern, Anfang
1926. Beiträge zur Statistik der "Stadt Bern, Heft 7. Herausgegeben
vom Statistischen Amt.
Die Lage des Wohnungsmarktes in der Stadt Bern im J a h r e 1918.
Beiträge zur Statistik der Stadt Bern, Heft 3. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen A m t der Stadt Bern.

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Zurich
Die Erhebungen über den Zürcher Wohnungsmarkt. Statistik der
Stadt Zürich, Nr. 15. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt der Stadt
Zürich.
Der Wohnungsmarkt in Zürich und Umgebung am 1. Dezember
1913. Statistik der Stadt Zürich, Nr. 17. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt der Stadt Zürich.
Der kommunale und subventionierte Wohnungsbau in der Stadt
Zürich bis zum Jahre 1920. Statistik der Stadt Zürich, Heft 27. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amte der Stadt Zürich.

III.

—

PERIODICAL RETURNS.

AUSTRIA
Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Wien. Bearbeitet von der MagistratsAbteilung XXI für Statistik.
Wochenbericht der Statistischen Abteilung. Magistrat der Stadt
Wien.
Statistische Mitteilung der Stadt Wien. Herausgegeben von der
Magistrats-Abteilung für Statistik.
CANADA
The Labour Gazette. Published by the Department of Labour, Canada.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Prague
Statistická zpráva hlavniho mesta Prahy. Statisticka komise hlavniho mesta Prahy. (Statistical Yearbook for Statistical Commission,
Prague.)
Mesícní zpravy statisticke kancelare hlavniho mesta Prahy. (Monthly
Bulletin, Prague Municipal Statistical Office.)
DENMARK
Statistisk Aarbog. Udgivet af det Statistiske Departement. (Statistical Yearbook. Published by the Statistical Department.)
Huslejen og Byerne. Danmarks Statistik, Statistiske Meddelelser.
Udgivet af det Statistiske Department. (Rents in Towns. Statistical
Review. Published by the Statistical Department.)
Copenhagen
Statistisk Aarbog for Kobenhavn, Frederisberg og Gjentofte Kommune. Udgivet af Kobenhavns Statistiske Kontor. (Statistical Yearbook for Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Gjentofte. Published by the
Copenhagen Statistical Office.)
FRANCE
Annuaire statistique. Statistique générale de la France ; Ministère
du Travail, de l'Hygiène, de l'Assistance et de la Prévoyance sociale.
Lyou
Bulletin municipal officiel.

Municipalité de Lyon.

1

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GERMANY
Bautätigkeit und leerstehende Wohnungen in deutschen Städten ;
Sonderbeilage zum Reichsarbeitsblatt. Verarbeitet im Statistischen
Amte.
Viertel] ahrshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs. Herausgegeben
vom Statistischen Reichsamt.
Berlin
Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin. Herausgegeben von dem
Statistischen Amt der Stadt Berlin.
Bautätigkeit und Wohnungsmarkt in Berlin ; Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amts der Stadt Berlin.
Vierteljahrsberichte des Statistischen Amts der Stadt Berlin.
Hamburg
Statistisches Handbuch für den Hamburgischen Staat. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Landesamt.
Hamburger Statistische Monatsberichte. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Landesamt.
Der Wohnungsmarkt in der Stadt Hamburg... Sonderabdruck aus
dem Amtlichen Anzeiger.
Die Miete der Wohnungen und Geschäftsräume in der Stadt Hamburg... Sonderabdruck aus dem Amtlichen Anzeiger.
Endgültige Ergebnisse der Personenstands- und Wohnungsaufnahme
vom... im hamburgischen Staate. Sonderabdruck aus dem Amtlichen
Anzeiger.
Munich
Münchener Jahresübersichten. Statistisches Amt der Stadt München.
GREAT BRITAIN
The Ministry of Labour Gazette.
HUNGARY
Budapest
Budapest Székesfovàros Statisztikai Êvkônyve. Budapest Székesfovàros Statisztikai Hivatala. (Statistisches Jahrbuch der Haupt- und
Residenzstadt Budapest. Budapest, Kommunal-statistisches Bureau.)
ITALY
Annuario statistico. Commune di Milano, Ufficio municipale di Statistica. (Statistical Yearbook. Municipality of Milan. Municipal Statistical Office.)
Rome
Rivista mensile di Statistica. Commune di Roma, Ufficio di Stato
Civile e Statistica. (Monthly Statistical Review. Municipality of
Rome, Statistical Office.)
JAPAN
Jiji Yearbook.
NETHERLANDS
Maandschrift van net Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. (Monthly
Review of the Central Statistical Office.)

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Amsterdam
Statistisch Jaarboek der Gemeente Amsterdam. Uuitgegeven door het
Bureau van Statistiek der Gemeente Amsterdam. (Statistical Yearbook
for the Municipality of -Amsterdam. Published by the Municipal
Statistical Office.)
Maandbericht van het Bureau van Statistiek der Gemeente Amsterdam. (Monthly Bulletin of the Amsterdam Municipal Statistical Office.)
Verslag van den Gemeentelijken Woningdienst te Amsterdam. Verslagen van Bedrijven, Diensten en Commissiën der Gemeente Amsterdam. (Report of the Amsterdam Municipal Housing Department.)
The Hague
Jaarboek. Statistisch Bureau der Gemeente's Gravenhage. (Statistical
Office of the Municipality of The Hague Yearbook.)
Maandcijfers van het Statistisch Bureau der. Gemeente 's Gravenhage. (Monthly figures of The Hague. Municipal Statistical Office.)
NEW ZEALAND
Monthly Abstract of Statistics. Dominion of New Zealand.
NORWAY
Statistiske meddelelser. Utgit av det Statistiske Centralbyra. (Monthly
Review of the Central Statistical Office.)
Oslo
Statistisk aarbok'for Kristiania by. Utgit av Kommunens statistiske
kontor.
(Statistical Yearbook for the Municipality of Christiania.
Municipal Statistical Office.)
Statistisk Maanedsskrift. Utgit av Kristiania Kommunale statistiske kontor og folkeregister. (Statistical Monthly. Published by the
Municipal Statistical Office.)
POLAND
Warsaw
Miesiecznik Statystyczny. Majistrat M. St. Warszawy. (Monthly
Bulletin of Municipal Statistics. Municipality of Warsaw.)
Rocznik Statystyczny Warszawy. Magistrat M. St. Warszawy. (Statistical Yearbook for Warsaw. Municipality of Warsaw.)
Lodz
Annuaire statistique de la ville de Lodz. Service de statistique de la
ville de Lodz.
SWEDEN
Sodala Meddelanden. Utgivna av K. Socialstyrelsen. (Social Review.
Published by the Social Board.)
Byggnadsverksamheten i rikets stadssamhällen Sveriges Officiella
Statistisk. Socialstatistisk ; av. K. Socialstyrelsen. (Building activity
in Swedish U r b a n Communes. Swedish ' Official Statistics, Social
Statistics. Published by the Social Board.)
Stockholm
Statistisk ársbok för Stockholms Stad ; Stockholms stads Statistiska
Kontor. (Yearbook for the Municipality of Stockholm. Municipal
Statistical Office, Stockholm.)
Statistisk mánadsskrift, utgiven av Stockholms Stads Statistiska
Kontor. (Monthly Bulletin of the Municipal Statistical Office, Stockholm.)

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SWITZERLAND
Informations de statistique sociale. Publiées par l'Office fédéral du
travail.
Basle
Statistisches J a h r b u c h des Kantons Basel-Stadt. Herausgegeben vom
Statistischen Amt.
Bautätigkeit und Wohnungsmarkt. Mitteilungen des Statistischen
Amtes des Kantons Basel-Stadt.
Die Zählung der leerstehenden Wohnungen und Geschäftslokale in
Basel. Mitteilungen des Statistischen Amtes des Kantons Basel-Stadt.
Statistische Viertel]ahrs-Berichte des Kantons Basel-Stadt. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt.
Statistische Monatsberichte des Kantons Basels-Stadt. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt.
Berne
Statistisches Handbuch der Stadt Bern. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt.
Halb Jahresbericht über die Bevölkerungsbewegung und die wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse der Stadt Bern. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt, im Auftrage der Direktion des Industriellen Betriebe.
Zurich
Zürcher Statistische Nachrichten. Herausgegeben vom Statistischen
A m t der Stadt Zürich.
Die Mietpreise in der Stadt Zürich. Statistik der Stadt Zürich.
Herausgegeben vom Statistischen Amt der Stadt Zürich.
UNITED STATES
Building Permits in the Principal Cities of the United States. Bulletin
of the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics, Miscellaneous Series.
U.S. Department of Labour. Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Monthly Labour Review. U.S. Department of Labour, Bureau of
Labour Statistics.
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
Official Yearbook. Union of South Africa.