Analyzing Housing and Household Evolution and Actuality in Lisbon, 2000-2020

Abstract

Housing is a form of culture and, as such, is greatly influenced by social context and its transformation. Household composition and characteristics, modes of living and housing typologies and attributes are undoubtedly linked. This paper proposes an analysis of Lisbon’s housing reality, from the year 2000 to 2020, relating it to social change, namely household evolution in the same period. The analyzed data were collected from Portuguese National Censuses from 2001 and 2011 and statistical information gathered yearly by the national statistics institute (INE) regarding population and building. The analysis shows that Lisbon’s housing and household reality differs from the national context, and that in the 21 st century, housing in Lisbon has tended to a reduction in size — both typology and area — but also that the average Portuguese household (and Lisbon’s correspondingly) has decreased in dimension and composition type, indicating that increasingly smaller households are offered smaller units and that new and nontraditional household compositions and associated alternative modes of living could be determining a shift in housing programs.