Harare (New Ziana) – The majority of Zimbabweans own the houses they live in, with 83 percent of the dwellings being modern, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said on Wednesday.
Zimstat said this in its preliminary results of the 2022 housing and population census which it conducted from 21 to 30 April this year.
The 2022 national population census, for the first time, captured data on living conditions and access to basic needs such as water and electricity.
In line with the Second Republic’s mantra of not leaving anyone or any place behind, the census also collated data on persons with functional difficulties such as seeing, walking, remembering or concentrating, self-care, communication and hearing.
This information will enable the government to craft intervention policies and programmes that reduce inequalities among disadvantaged population groups, while also aiding the crafting of plans for social service delivery.
According to Zimstat, the housing characteristics and living conditions part of the census collated information on issues including tenure status, type of dwelling unit, access to electricity, main source of energy for cooking and main source of water for drinking and cooking.
It also collated information on the number of persons per room, type of toilet facility and mode of waste disposal.
“The dominant tenure status observed across Zimbabwe was Owner at 58.6 percent, followed by lodger with 19.3 percent,” read part of the report.
Other tenure statuses included tied accommodation at 9.3 percent while relational, which refers to people living at their relative’s place, was at 9.1 percent.
“Rural areas reported the highest proportion of owner occupancy at 76.8 percent. Urban areas reported the highest proportion of lodger occupancy at 42.7 percent.”
The type of dwelling units were categorized as modern and traditional.
Modern dwelling units include detached, semi-detached, mixed, flats/townhouse and clustered dwelling units while traditional dwelling units are old style family settlements in which buildings are made of pole and dagga.
“Nationally, 83 percent of the dwelling units were modern. About 16 percent of the dwelling units were traditional. Traditional dwelling units were mostly in rural areas (97.6 percent).”
In terms of access to amenities, the majority of households, at 38 percent, did not have any source of electricity, 34 percent used grid electricity while 28 percent used off grid electricity.
“Of the households that indicated use of grid electricity, 84 percent were in urban areas. Of the households that indicated use of off grid electricity, 78.7 percent were in rural areas. Of the households that did not have electricity, 83.7 percent were in rural areas,” Zimstat said.
As for water supply, for both drinking and cooking, about 30 percent of the households accessed piped water into dwelling, yard or plot, over 24 percent of the households accessed drinking water from protected dug well/spring while 4.5 percent of the households accessed drinking water from a public tap.
As for the type of toilet facility used, most of the households (38. 2 percent) used the flush toilet system.
“On one hand, a significant 19.8 percent of the households did not use any toilet facility, while on the other hand, 15.6 percent used the Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines.”
According to preliminary population census results released late last month, Zimbabwe’s population grew by 16.2 percent to 15 178 979 from 13.1 million in 2012.
The population constituted 3 818 992 households, giving an average of 4 persons per household.
New Ziana
