The number of occupied housing units in the City of Manila increased by 13.9 percent in 2015

The number of housing units in the City of Manila reached to 409,987, with 435,154 households occupying it, as of August 1, 2015.  The number of occupied housing units increased by 13.9 percent than the previous censal year.

Occupied housing units in the city have been constantly increasing from 1960 to 2015, except in 1990.  In 1980, the number of occupied housing units increased by almost half of 1970 but dropped by 5.6 percent in 1990.

The year 1980 marked the fastest growth rate with 43.8 percent,  On the other hand, 2010 registered the slowest growth with 1.5 percent.

In the National Capital Region, the City of Manila is the second city with the highest number of occupied housing units, following the Quezon City, with 13.8 percent contribution to the whole region.

Majority of the households occupy multi-unit residential

There are six types of housing units: (a) single house; (b) duplex; (c) multi-unit residential; (d) commercial/industrial/agricultural; (e) institutional living quarter; and (f) others that refers to living quarters that are neither intended for human habitation nor located in permanent buildings but nevertheless used as living quarters at the time of census.

Among these types of housing units, 57.4 percent of the households occupied multi-unit residential while 27.2 and 14.0 percent on single houses and duplex, respectively.  On the other hand, commercial/industrial/agricultural and institutional living quarters (ILQ) accounted for 0.6 percent.  The rest were other types of housing units and not reported.

There are 106 households per 100 occupied housing units

The 2015 Census of Population revealed that there were 435,154 households in the city.  On the average, there are four persons per household.

The households-to-occupied housing units resulted to a ratio of 106 is to 100.

Approximately 99 percent of the housing units are built of strong walls and roofs

Walls of housing units are considered strong if it is made of concrete/brick/stone, wood, half concrete/brick/stone and half wood, galvanized iron/aluminum, asbestos, and glass.  Likewise, roofs are strong if it is made of galvanized iron/aluminum, tile/concrete/clay tile, half galvanized iron and half concrete, and asbestos.

Out of 409,987 housing units, 405,049 (98.8%) had strong walls and 404,487 (98.7%) had strong roofs.  The rests were made of bamboo/sawali/cogon/nipa, makeshift/salvaged/improvised materials, trapal, and others while some had no walls and had not reported walls and roofs.

Four out of ten households are only renting

Based on the results of the 2015 Census of Population, most of the residents in the City of Manila were only renting house/room including lot or own-house but rent lot which accounted to 44.9 percent of the total number of households.  The buildings being rented were mostly multi-unit residential and single houses.

On the other hand, the number of households who really owned or possessed a house and lot was 164,404 (37.8%).  Same way, most of these owned properties were multi-unit residential and single houses.

Meanwhile, 21,108 (4.9%) households occupied houses or lots without the consent of the owner.

Households still rely on electricity as source of lighting

Majority of the households used electricity as a kind of fuel for lighting with a total of 428,934 or 98.6 percent of the total number of households.  This was followed by the usage of gases, like kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas, with 2,365 and 1,369, respectively.

People have now shifted with the technology through the usage of solar energy.  It was reported that 164 households used solar panel and solar lamps.

On the other hand, some households were still using oil from vegetable, animals, and others; 1,018 had been reported who were using other kinds of fuel; 1,012 were none; and 258 had not been reported.

Majority of the households of the City of Manila drinks water from community water systems

Residents in the City of Manila used different sources of drinking water but majority of them used to drink water from community water systems, either owned or shared, with 55.4 percent.  This was followed by bottled water with 41.2 percent.

Some residents got drinking waters from tubed/piped deep wells, either owned or shared, (0.4%); tubed/piped shallow (0.02); dug wells (0.01%); springs, either protected or not, (0.1%); lake, river, rain and others (0.01%); peddler (2.6%); and others (0.2%).

Aside from drinking, community water systems are commonly used for cooking too

Ninety-six percent of households used community water systems as source of water for cooking, followed by peddler and bottled water with 2.1 and 1.2 percent, respectively.

(SGD.) Danilo R. Cubinar
Chief Statistical Specialist