Wanted: More Houses

Many Europeans live in more crowded, less comfortable houses than they did in 1937. This depressing fact emerged from a housing survey published last week by the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Europe. Wartime losses--some 10 million European homes--have not yet been made up. In many countries, the number of dwellings per capita is lower than it was prewar: Greece, by 20%; West Germany, 16%; Italy, 9%; France, 6%.

All European nations, including the Soviet Union, are working hard to catch up, the report said, but the rate of home-building varies. Each year Norway is building 10.5 houses for every 1,000 inhabitants; Communist Rumania is building only one per 1,000 population. Other rates: West Germany, 9.9; Russia, 5.3; France, 2.7. Current rate in the U.S.: about 7.5.

Though the building pace is now the best since the war, Europe's population is growing at an even faster pace, and the countries already best off for homes (Scandinavia and Britain) are progressing better than those that need it most (eastern Europe, France, Italy and Turkey). The conclusion: "The gap between the better-off and the worse-off is widening."

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