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Last updated 29 July 2026

Pucca housing among Muslims in India

What share of households lives in a pucca house, with walls and roof of permanent materials like brick, concrete or stone. The standard Indian measure of housing quality.

83.6%in permanent-material homes(2018)

higher is better

vs all communities: +0.3pp ahead

Explore the interactive chart, with breakdowns by electricity and urban vs rural →

Latest figures by community (2018)

CommunityLatest value
Muslim83.6%
Hindu83.3%
Sikh97.0%
Christian79.4%
All communities83.3%

Electricity2018

Share of households with electricity for domestic use, from the same NSS 76th round survey as the pucca-housing chart. Near-universal by 2018 and close to parity: Muslim households at 96.6% against Hindu 95.4% and all-India 95.7%, the small Muslim edge riding on the community's higher urban share.

CommunityOverallUrbanRural
Muslim96.6%98.8%95.2%
Sikh99.7%100.0%99.6%
Christian97.5%99.2%96.5%
Hindu95.4%99.2%93.6%
All communities95.7%99.1%93.9%

From microdata Reproduce this view. This figure is recomputed from the unit-level survey microdata, the raw NSS or PLFS records behind the linked source. Source: NSS 76th 1.2 (2018). Each value is computed from the data file; every row records its own source and method.

Urban vs rural2018

CommunityUrbanRural
Muslim95.7%75.9%
Christian92.6%71.1%
Hindu96.2%76.8%
Sikh99.4%96.0%
All communities96.0%76.7%

From microdata Reproduce this view. This figure is recomputed from the unit-level survey microdata, the raw NSS or PLFS records behind the linked source. Source: NSS 76th 1.2 (2018). Each value is computed from the data file; every row records its own source and method.

Bottom line

About 84% of Muslim households lived in a pucca, permanent-material home in 2018, essentially the same as Hindus at 83%. On the basic quality of the roof over their heads the two communities are level, another amenity where the usual gap does not appear.

How to read the chart

The chart compares the share of households in a pucca (permanent-material) home across communities for 2018; higher is better. The Electricity tab carries a closely related amenity, and Urban vs rural splits the rate by place, where pucca housing is near-universal in towns.

Why it matters

A pucca home of brick or concrete withstands monsoon, heat and fire far better than a kutcha one of mud or thatch, and is the base for everything from health to a child's place to study. It is the most basic marker of housing security.

Status

At parity

Muslim 83.6% vs Hindu 83.3% in 2018, about level. On housing structure Muslims and Hindus are level, and both sit near the national average; the gaps in this cluster are between town and village, not between communities.

Deeper analysis

Potential drivers

  • A shared floor · Pucca housing has become near-universal in towns for every community, so urban Muslims and Hindus look alike ↗ Sachar Committee Report, 2006.
  • Housing schemes · Decades of rural and urban housing programmes have lifted permanent-material homes across the board.
  • Self-build first · Households of all communities invest first in a solid house, often the single largest asset they ever build.

Key levers

  • Reach the last kutcha homes · The remaining gap is the poorest rural households of every community, the target of the housing schemes.
  • Quality, not just walls · A pucca label can still hide crowding and poor ventilation worth improving.
  • Tenure security · Secure land title is what lets the urban poor invest in a permanent home.
Key stakeholders
  • Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen): The national rural sanitation programme, under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, that built over ten crore household toilets to make villages free of open defecation.
  • Jal Jeevan Mission: The Ministry of Jal Shakti mission to provide a safe piped drinking water connection to every rural household, with source sustainability and community management.
  • Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin): The Ministry of Rural Development scheme that helps houseless families and those in kutcha homes build a pucca house with basic amenities.
  • Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, India: The Aga Khan network's habitat agency, building water security, sanitation, low-cost housing and disaster resilience in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana. Founded by the Ismaili community, it serves all communities.
  • Human Welfare Foundation: A development NGO whose community work includes drinking-water and shelter projects for deprived families in disadvantaged, largely minority areas. Donate
  • WaterAid India 80G + FCRA: A water and sanitation NGO working since 1986 across about 1,200 villages in ten states to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene reach the poorest. Donate
  • Habitat for Humanity India 80G + FCRA: A housing NGO that provides decent, affordable homes and sanitation to low-income and marginalised families and helps disaster-hit families rebuild. Donate
  • Sulabh International: India's pioneering sanitation movement, which has built over sixteen lakh household toilets and ten thousand public toilet complexes and works to rehabilitate manual scavengers.

Badges link to an independent or registered credential where the organisation publishes one (Credibility Alliance, GiveIndia, 80G, FCRA). Many smaller NGOs do not take part in these registries, so a missing badge is not a mark against an organisation.

About this measurement

Definition. Share of households living in a pucca structure: walls and roof both made of permanent materials (brick, concrete, stone, metal and similar), the standard Indian measure of housing quality.

Methodology. Computed from NSS 76th round Schedule 1.2 unit-level microdata (Jul-Dec 2018), by religion of household head, weighted; reproduces the published all-India values (76.7 rural / 96.0 urban / 83.3 all) exactly. Muslim 83.6% vs Hindu 83.3%: parity overall, with rural Muslims slightly behind rural Hindus (75.9 vs 76.8) offset by the community's higher urban share. Same source, validation and caveats as the water card (see sources/nss76/); religion is self-reported per the NSO rider; year=2018 = survey period.

The "Electricity" tab folds in the companion measure from the same Schedule 1.2 microdata (the decarded household-electricity metric, reproducing the published 93.9 rural / 99.1 urban / 95.7 all exactly): Muslim 96.6% vs Hindu 95.4%, near-parity by 2018 with the small Muslim edge from the community's higher urban share.

Sources. NSS 76th 1.2 (2018). Download CSV: pucca-house.csv.

From microdata How to reproduce. This figure is recomputed from the unit-level survey microdata, the raw NSS or PLFS records behind the linked source.

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