MAKKAH — The number of Saudi families rose to 3.59 million by the middle of 2018, according to statistics published by the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).

GaStat’s bulletin on housing also showed that the number of houses owned and occupied by Saudi families increased by 3.43 percent by the middle of 2018, compared with the previous year.

The number of homes rented by Saudi families declined to 36.63 percent by the middle of 2018 from 38 percent in 2017.

The housing bulletin gave region-wise data on housing occupied by Saudi families. The data included houses owned, rented or employer-provided.

The data was compiled to study the impact of housing characteristics and its surrounding environment, in addition to create a database on housing.

The total number of homes occupied by Saudi families, including those owned, rented and employer-provided, increased by 2.46 percent while Saudi families occupied 64.2 percent of the total number of houses in the Kingdom. — SG