New Delhi: According to the latest data released by the government in June 2016, about 900 million Indians, or nearly 75 per cent of India’s households – with an average family size of five – live in two rooms or less. Of the 900 million, 630 million, or more than half of all households, live in rural areas, with 262 million, or 20 per cent, in urban areas.
No more than 106 million urban households, or nine per cent of all Indian households, live in homes with more than three rooms. About 185 million Indians in rural areas, or 15 per cent of all Indian households, live in houses with three or more rooms.
Kerala has India’s largest homes. The people of Kerala – India’s seventh-richest by per capita income – live in India’s largest homes. Kerala is followed by Jammu and Kashmir and Assam – 21st and 27th in terms of per capita income – with 66 per cent and 34 per cent rural, and 60 per cent and 45 per cent of the urban population living in relatively larger houses.
Jharkhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are the only states among the 23 big states for which the data has been released where more than half of all families live in two-room houses, both in rural and urban areas.