The World’s Landless and Homeless: scale, causes, hotspots, and humanitarian consequences
Overview
Homelessness and landlessness are global problems with many faces. At one end are people sleeping rough on city streets; at the other are families crowded into informal settlements or living without secure land rights. Measuring the problem is difficult because definitions vary between countries (shelterless, living in inadequate housing, internally displaced, or lacking formal land rights). Still, multiple reputable sources show the same broad pattern: hundreds of millions of people around the world lack adequate housing, and tens to hundreds of millions lack any stable home or secure land.
How many people are homeless or landless each year?
Numbers depend on definitions:
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Inadequate housing / insecure land: UN-Habitat and related analyses estimate well over 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing or lack secure tenure; some recent syntheses put the figure much higher (approaching 2.5–3.0 billion when all forms of housing inadequacy are counted). These figures include people in slums, informal settlements, and those with precarious tenure.
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People without any home (shelterless/homeless): point estimates for those who are literally homeless (sleeping rough or in emergency shelters) vary widely by source and year; conservative global tallies often cite tens of millions, while advocacy groups and some studies estimate around 100 million people may be classed as homeless worldwide depending on the definition used. Meanwhile, millions more (hundreds of millions) live in slums or temporary housing that counts as “housing inadequacy.”
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Annual drivers (evictions and displacement): millions are forcibly evicted or displaced every year—UN sources have reported on the order of tens of millions who face forced eviction, and internal displacement from conflict and violence reached 68.3 million by end-2023, adding massively to homelessness and landlessness.
Because tracking systems are incomplete, the best reading is that the scale is enormous (hundreds of millions with precarious housing; tens to a hundred million+ with acute homelessness) and that every year millions more become newly homeless or landless because of conflict, disasters, evictions or economic shocks.
What causes homelessness and landlessness?
Multiple, often overlapping causes push people into homelessness or into losing secure access to land:
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Conflict, violence and forced displacement — wars and localized violence produce sudden, large flows of internally displaced people and refugees who lose homes and land rights. Internal displacement was at record highs in recent years.
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Natural disasters and climate change — storms, floods, droughts and sea-level rise destroy homes and farmland, or make areas uninhabitable, forcing people to move and often ending up in informal, insecure housing. Climate shocks are increasingly cited as a major driver of housing insecurity.
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Evictions, land grabs and insecure tenure — urban redevelopment, unaffordable rent, or legally contested land rights lead to forced evictions and loss of tenure for millions annually. UN agencies repeatedly flag forced eviction as a major contributor.
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Poverty and lack of affordable housing — rising housing costs, stagnating incomes, and shortages of affordable units push low-income families into homelessness or informal settlements. In many cities, demand far outstrips supply.
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Rapid urbanization and rural-to-urban migration — cities attract people for work but often lack the infrastructure and housing to absorb newcomers, producing sprawling informal settlements. UN projections show continuing urban growth that will exacerbate pressure on housing.
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Health and social factors — mental illness, substance dependence, family breakdown, loss of employment, and lack of social safety nets increase vulnerability to homelessness.
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Policy and governance failures — weak land governance, limited social protection, and poor urban planning worsen housing insecurity and hinder prevention.
These causes are interconnected: e.g., climate shocks can trigger conflict; urbanization plus unaffordable housing can produce mass informal settlements.
Where is homelessness and landlessness worst (countries and continents)?
Because definitions vary, exact country rankings differ by dataset. But broad patterns are consistent:
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Asia and Africa hold the largest absolute numbers of people living in slums, informal settlements, and insecure housing—largely because they are home to the majority of the world’s population and rapid urbanization is concentrated there. UN-Habitat and other global reports point to Asia and Africa as epicenters for informal settlement growth.
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Countries with large homeless or inadequately housed populations often cited in multiple lists include India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and others—but rankings vary and often reflect whether the measure counts people in slums, rough sleepers, or internally displaced people. Several populous developing countries therefore report large absolute numbers.
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Developed countries: homelessness is also significant in high-income countries (for example, the United States and many OECD countries record large numbers of people experiencing homelessness annually). Official counts in OECD countries show millions affected within that group, though absolute counts are smaller than in the most populous developing nations.
In short: Asia and Africa show the largest absolute burdens of inadequate housing and informal settlements; some individual developing countries rank highest in absolute homeless counts because of population size and weak housing systems; OECD countries face homelessness that is severe locally even if smaller in absolute terms.
Which developing or poor countries are failing to cope with population-driven housing pressures?
Many low- and middle-income countries struggle to keep up with the housing demand created by population growth and migration. Typical challenges occur where:
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public housing programs are underfunded,
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urban planning and land titling systems are weak, and
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social protection networks are limited.
Examples (from trends and UN/World Bank analyses) include large parts of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where informal settlements are expanding faster than upgrading programs and municipal capacities. Countries with combination of rapid urban growth, climate vulnerability, and weak governance are especially at risk.
Where will homelessness and landlessness grow in future — and why?
Several overlapping dynamics suggest where pressures will increase:
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Rapid urbanization: UN projections show urban population rises toward 68% by 2050; without major policy shifts, more people will end up in informal housing.
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Climate hotspots: low-lying coastal countries, small island states, and drought-prone regions (parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Sahel, and low-lying Pacific and Indian Ocean states) are at higher risk of climate-driven displacement and homelessness.
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Fragile or conflict-affected states: regions with ongoing or escalating conflicts are likely to see more internal displacement and homelessness (e.g., where governance collapses or conflict spreads).
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Affordability crises: cities where wages lag and housing markets heat up (both in the developing and developed world) will see rising homelessness unless social housing and rental protections expand.
Put simply: many countries in Asia and Africa, climate-vulnerable coastal states, and conflict-affected regions are most likely to see increases unless strong interventions are made.
Humanitarian and human-rights crises faced by homeless and landless people
People without secure homes face a cascade of humanitarian problems:
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Immediate physical risks — exposure to weather, higher risk of injury and death, food insecurity.
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Health crises — poor sanitation, infectious disease outbreaks, untreated chronic conditions, and mental-health problems.
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Protection risks — violence, exploitation, sexual and gender-based violence, and exclusion from services.
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Economic exclusion — inability to access stable employment, banking, credit or benefits that require proof of residence or identity.
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Education disruption — children in informal housing or displacement often lose schooling or attend irregularly.
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Legal insecurity — loss of land rights prevents rebuilding livelihoods, accessing compensation, or benefiting from development.
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Long-term intergenerational poverty — without tenure and services, families can remain trapped in precarious conditions across generations.
What helps — and what needs scaling?
Research and practice point to several essential responses:
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Prevention: stronger tenant protections, anti-eviction measures, and social safety nets.
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Secure tenure and land rights: regularization and affordable land titling where appropriate.
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Affordable housing supply: investment in social and affordable housing, upgrading of informal settlements.
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Integrated disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation: to reduce displacement after shocks.
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Targeted services: health, mental-health, cash transfers and employment support for those experiencing homelessness.
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Improved measurement: better national homelessness counts to target policy and track progress.
Closing note
Homelessness and landlessness are not a single policy problem but a knot of economic, environmental, political and social issues. The scale is vast: hundreds of millions with inadequate housing and tens to hundreds of millions with acute homelessness or insecure tenure, with most of the burden concentrated in Asia and Africa and with certain countries and regions especially exposed to climate, conflict and rapid urban growth. Reversing these trends requires coordinated action — prevention, secure tenure, affordable housing supply, social protection, and climate-resilient planning — and the political will to treat housing as a central human right, not a residual social problem.
Sources (selected)
UN-Habitat; UN DESA; UN reports on displacement; OECD homelessness brief; Homeless World Cup statistics; World Population Review country compilations; World Bank and peer-reviewed studies on urban resilience and climate-driven displacement. (Key web citations used inline.)
Homeless World Cup+4UN-Habitat+4IIHL+4
