Paris, 28 January 2025
As of 2024, over two million people were estimated to be experiencing homelessness each year in OECD and EU countries. As a range of methodological challenges complicate the measurement of the extent of homelessness, it is hard for policymakers to develop evidence-based policy solutions.
This paper discusses measurement challenges and aims to address them by advancing understanding, assessment and comparison of homelessness in OECD and EU countries.
Section 1 summarises the main methodological challenges to measurement and cross-national comparison of homelessness indicators and presents the scope of the existing statistical definitions in OECD and EU countries.
Section 2 presents the six most common approaches to collecting data on homelessness, as well as their strengths and limitations. It also highlights different socio-demographic groups that are often underreported or “missed” in standard data collection exercises, and the methodological challenges behind this evidence gap.
Section 3 proposes a self-assessment tool to help strengthen data collection and features some relevant practical examples.
Read the report
Related publications
OECD Toolkit to Combat Homelessness, 13 December 2024