Original article Crowding in a traditional rural housing (“Tukul”) in Ethiopia Abera Kumie 1 , Yemane Berhane 2 Abstract Background : Poor housing condition is one of the major public health concerns in many developing nations due to its association with the health status. Objectives : To determine the size of traditional “Tukul” by altitudinal zone in rural communities. Methods: During a census enumeration 5113 rural housing units were physically assessed. Axis, radius, and wall height were measured to the nearest centimeter by trained enumerators using a tape meter. Results : The mean (±SD) values of axis, radius, and wall height were found to be as 537.92cm (±84.88), 329.43cm (±64.81), and 236.38cm (±22.65), respectively. The mean (±SD) space for floor area was 35.43 (13.72)m 2 and space by indoor volume was 123.42 (60.26)m 3 per habitable “Tukul”. According to the WHO literatures for a dwelling units, about 85% of the “Tukuls” in a rural area are crowded and far behind to satisfy the physiological needs of a resident. Nearly 95% of housing units had only one room. Conclusions and Recommendations : The high magnitude of overcrowding in rural housing units indicates the poor living and sanitation conditions. As this predisposes to many adverse health conditions, appropriate interventions need to be done with out delay. [ Ethiop.J.Health Dev. 2002;16(3):303-308] Introduction Housing conditions have major public health importance. Healthful housing is one that satisfies the basic physiological and psycho- social needs of human beings and do not expose to environmental hazards (1). The World Bank estimates that over 50% of the third world population live in conditions of extreme poverty and that nearly one quarter of the worlds population live in shelters that do not satisfy the basic needs of housing (2-4). The usual practice for measuring of crowding at household level is to determine the number of persons per room and space availability in terms of floor area per person. Their threshold 1 Addis Ababa University, Medical Faculty, Department of Community Health; 2 Addis Ababa University, P.O.Box 9086, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Fax:+251-1-517701; Tel: +251-1-513715 values were derived on the basis of physiological needs of health standards for dwellings (5). WHO literatures often suggest a 9-10m 2 floor area per person and a minimum ratio of 0.10 of window to floor area to provide adequate natural ventilations (6-8). According to the National Population and Housing Census in 1984, 39.0% of urban and 52% of the rural population live in an overcrowded housing (9). In Ethiopia, basic housing needs such as safe water and sanitation have low coverages in the majority of housing units in rural population representing 14.8% and 5.91% coverages, respectively (10), presenting favorable environment for the transmission of various types of communicable diseases. In adequate in-house space has been identified as a risk factor for the propagation of respiratory infections due to bacterial causes and indoor air Pollution. A high risk of acute lower respiratory infection was associated with increasing number of persons per room and high level of indoor air pollution in a study