Of every 8 inhabitants on the planet, 1 now lives in slums or inadequate houses, according to UN data. The issue is even more worrisome because most of humanity’s growth forecast for the next few decades will take place in cities, which lack adequate areas to receive more housing. This Tuesday (15), the United Nations predicts that the world will reach the mark of 8 billion inhabitants.
The entity defines an inadequate house as one that has at least one of the following conditions: it is made of poorly resistant materials; does not have adequate access to potable water and sewage; and houses more than three people per room.
In the last decades, however, the trend had been towards some improvement. In 2000, 31.2% of the planet’s residents who lived in cities were under these conditions. After 20 years, the percentage dropped to 24.2% — in Latin America, the drop was greater, from 31.9% to 17.7% in this period, but the index is still far from that observed in Europe and America. of the North (which, according to the UN, excludes Mexico), where only 0.7% of the urban population lives in an inadequate way.
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