UN Marks 40th World Habitat Day in Muscat as 3.4 Billion Lack Adequate Housing

The United Nations marked the 40th observance of World Habitat Day on Monday, 5 October 2026, with its global ceremony in Muscat, Oman, under the theme “Adequate Housing for All” — and a warning that up to 3.4 billion people worldwide still lack safe, secure and adequate housing.

FAKTA: World Habitat Day 2026 in brief

• What: the 40th observance of UN World Habitat Day, held each year on the first Monday of October.
• 2026 theme: “Adequate Housing for All”.
• Global ceremony: the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre in Muscat, hosted with the Government of Oman, drawing more than 800 officials, city leaders and experts.
• The headline figure: up to 3.4 billion people lack adequate housing, according to UN-Habitat’s World Cities Report 2026.
• Honours: five winners received the 2026 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour, chosen from 101 nominations — including Punjab’s “Apni Chhat Apna Ghar” housing programme from Pakistan.

A Muscat call to action

In a video message to the ceremony, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Adequate housing is the foundation of dignity, security, and opportunity. Yet more than 3 billion people are denied this universal human right.” He added that investing in adequate housing and transforming informal settlements reduces poverty, tackles inequality, builds climate resilience and fosters peaceful and inclusive societies.

UN-Habitat Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach told the gathering that adequate housing is not a luxury but “a foundation for a dignified life and for sustainable cities”. The observance brought together more than 800 government officials, city leaders, urban experts, civil society and private sector representatives, with a ministerial segment bringing together ten ministers and deputy ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Kuwait, Pakistan, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.

The numbers behind the housing crisis

UN-Habitat’s World Cities Report 2026 estimates that up to 3.4 billion people lack adequate housing. The agency’s SDG 11 Global Report 2026, published with partners across the UN system, finds the world far off track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11 — the number of people living in informal settlements and slums has grown by more than 130 million since 2015, to over 1.1 billion.

What counts as “adequate”?

According to UN-Habitat’s Executive Director, adequate housing under the UN human rights framework is judged by seven criteria: security of tenure, availability of services, habitability, affordability, location, accessibility and cultural adequacy.

“Adequate housing means much more than a physical structure with four walls and a roof. It gives people the opportunity to live with dignity,” Rossbach said in her opening address, which was monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria.

She pointed out that a family may have a roof over its head yet spend so much on rent that little income remains for food, education or healthcare — or live in a home far from workplaces, schools and transport. She also linked the crisis to climate emergencies: 45 million internal displacements were triggered by weather-related disasters in 2024 alone, and more than 300 million people worldwide experience homelessness.

2026 Scroll of Honour winners

UN-Habitat presented its 2026 Scroll of Honour awards — the programme’s longest-running housing recognition, handed out annually since 1989 — to five winners selected from 101 nominations across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The winners were Housing NOW in Myanmar, Tunisian construction innovator Abdelmalek Ghannem, the Indigenous village Aldeia do Espraiado – Tekoa Ara Hovy in Brazil, London Mayor Sadiq Khan for affordable and climate-resilient housing work in the British capital, and Pakistan’s Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency for the “Apni Chhat Apna Ghar” (“My Roof, My Home”) programme — the Asia and Pacific selection. According to Pakistani media reports, the award was formally handed to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz at the Muscat ceremony on 5 October.

“This year’s winners prove that the global housing crisis is not beyond our reach,” Rossbach said, noting that each winner puts people and their right to a home at the centre of urban development.

What it means for sustainable living

World Habitat Day marks the beginning of Urban October, UN-Habitat’s month-long campaign for sustainable urban development — a direct reminder that sustainable living starts with where and how people live. Housing that is affordable, well-located, energy-efficient and connected to transport and services cuts both emissions and everyday costs, while upgrading informal settlements builds resilience against the floods, storms and heatwaves of a warming climate.

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