Housing Characteristics and Household Population •
9
One-fourth of households in Afghanistan have access to improved toilet facilities. More than half of the
households in urban areas 52 have access to improved toilet facilities, as compared with only
16 of rural households Figure 2.3. Thirteen
percent of households do not have any toilet facility. In urban areas, improved toilet facilities generally
consist of some kind of flush or pour flush toilet. In rural areas, they are mostly VIP pit latrines or pit
latrines with slabs or composting toilets Table 2.2.
Three-fourths of rural households 75 have unimproved toilet facilities or no toilet facilities at
all, which increases the risk of disease transmission. Traditional dry vault toilets are the most common non-improved facility, used by half of rural households.
2.3 O
THER
H
OUSEHOLD
C
HARACTERISTICS
Exposure to smoke inside the home, either from cooking with solid fuels or from smoking tobacco, has potentially harmful health effects. Sixty-seven percent of households in Afghanistan use some type of solid
fuel for cooking. The majority of households in urban areas use liquefied petroleum gas LPG or natural gas 83, but in rural areas most households use solid fuel 84 such as wood, animal dung, or
strawshrubsgrass Table 2.3. Exposure to cooking smoke is greater when cooking takes place inside the
house rather than in a separate building or outdoors. In Afghanistan, cooking is done inside the home in more than half 55 of households. Additionally, in 19 of households someone smokes inside the house
daily. The survey also collected data on access to electricity, flooring materials, and the number of rooms used
for sleeping. Seventy-two percent of households in Afghanistan have electricity, with a large urban-rural divide; 93 of urban households and 64 of rural households have electricity. Carpet is the most common
material for flooring 56. Overall, 48 of households reported having three or more rooms for sleeping
Table 2.3.
2.4 H
OUSEHOLD
W
EALTH Wealth index
Households are given scores based on the number and kinds of consumer goods they own, ranging from a television to a bicycle or car, in addition to
housing characteristics such as source of drinking water, toilet facilities, and flooring materials. These scores are derived using principal component
analysis. National wealth quintiles are compiled by assigning the household score to each usual de jure household member, ranking each person in the
household population by his or her score, and then dividing the distribution into five equal categories, each comprising 20 of the population.
Sample: Households
In Afghanistan, the wealthiest households are concentrated in urban areas. Almost all of the urban population falls in the fourth and highest wealth quintiles, while most of the rural population is in the three
lowest wealth quintiles Figure 2.4.
Figure 2.3 Household toilet facilities by residence
52 16
25 17
5 8
29 58
50
2 17
13
4 3
Urban Rural
All Other
No facilitybushfield Unimproved facility
Shared facility Improved facility
Percent distribution of households by type of toilet facilities
10
• Housing Characteristics and Household Population
There are large provincial variations in wealth. In Kabul, 67 of the population is concentrated in the
highest wealth quintile, while a large majority of the population in Ghor 76, Bamyan 69, and
Daykundi 65 is concentrated in the lowest wealth
quintile Table 2.5.
Household Durable Goods
The survey also collected information on household effects, means of transportation, agricultural land,
farm animals, and bank accounts. Urban households are more likely than rural households to own a
television 84 versus 39, a mobile telephone 94 versus 85, a refrigerator 51 versus 8,
and a computer 28 versus 5. In contrast, 78 of rural households own farm animals. For complete
information on household possessions, see Table 2.4.
2.5 H
AND
W
ASHING
To obtain hand washing information, interviewers asked to see the place where members of the household most often washed their hands. Soap and water—the ideal hand washing agents—were observed in 36 of
households; another 28 had water only Table 2.6. Some 28 of households did not have water, soap,
or any other cleaning agent. These results probably overstate the availability of cleaning agents because they exclude 15 of urban and 28 of rural households where interviewers were unable to observe the
place where household members usually wash their hands. The most common reason for this was that there was no designated place for hand washing. Urban households were almost three times as likely as rural
households to have soap and water at the usual place for hand washing. The availability of soap and water increased with increasing wealth. Households in the highest wealth quintile were almost seven times as
likely as those in the lowest quintile to have soap and water.
2.6 H
OUSEHOLD
P
OPULATION AND
C
OMPOSITION Household
A person or group of related or unrelated persons who live together in the same dwelling units, who acknowledge one adult male or female as the head
of the household, who share the same housekeeping arrangements, and who are considered a single unit.
De facto population All persons who stayed in the selected households the night before the
interview whether usual residents or visitors.
De jure population All persons who are usual residents of the selected households, whether or
not they stayed in the household the night before the interview.
Figure 2.4 Household wealth by residence
3 26
2 26
4 25
18 21
73 3
Urban Rural
Percent distribution of de jure population by wealth quintiles
Wealthiest Fourth
Middle Second
Poorest
