There is a widely held perception in Pakistan that, although shelter is one of the basic needs, the country is not adequately coping with its housing requirements.  One statistic which is usually quoted to support this contention is that growth in the number of housing units has lagged behind the growth of population and that, consequently, the size of the housing deficit has increased over time. Between the two Housing Censuses of 1960 and 1980, while the population grew annually at the rate of 3 percent, the number of housing units increased by 2.1 percent.