Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

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A dwelling ¹ or dwelling unit ¹ is a statistical abstraction denoting housing accommodation appropriate for occupation by one household (110-.3). The size of a dwelling is measured by the number of its rooms ² or by its surface area ³. The degree of crowding ⁴ is a function of the size of the dwelling and of the number of its inhabitants. Crowding standards are applied to distinguish overcrowded dwellings ⁵ and insufficiently occupied dwellings ⁶. An unoccupied dwelling ⁷ is a dwelling which is not used for residence either permanently or occasionally.

• 1. A dwelling may consist of a private house, or part thereof, or of a flat or apartment which forms part of a block of flats or tenement house. In the United States a distinction is sometimes made between a one-household structure and a multiple-household structure. Statistics of houses by the number of floors or storeys are sometimes provided.
  It should be noted that in Europe the ground floor is not generally counted, whereas in the United States it is called the first floor.
• 2. There is no fixed rule as to whether or not the kitchen is included in the number of rooms.
• 5. overcrowded adj. — overcrowding n.

121

The occupier of a dwelling may be its owner ¹, or he maybe a tenant ², who rents it from an owner, who is then called his landlord ¹. A sub-tenant ³ is a person who rents from a tenant. A person occupying a dwelling to which he has no legal title is called a squatter ⁴,

• 2. English law distinguishes between a freeholder, who owns the land and buildings thereon absolutely and a leaseholder, who has leased the land for a definite term from a ground landlord to whom the land and buildings revert on the expiry of the term of the lease. Such terms may, however, be very extended.