Editing Eastern Bloc (section)

===Housing quality===
[[File:Mdm1.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Prominent examples of urban design included Marszałkowska Housing Estate (MDM) in [[Warsaw]].]]
The near-total emphasis on [[Residential building series|large apartment blocks]] was a common feature of Eastern Bloc cities in the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name="turnock54">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=54}}</ref> [[East Germany|East German]] authorities viewed large cost advantages in the construction of [[Plattenbau]] apartment blocks such that the building of such architecture on the edge of large cities continued until the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="turnock54"/> Buildings such as the [[Panelák]]s of [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]] and [[Panelház]] of [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]]. Wishing to reinforce the role of the state in the 1970s and 1980s, [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] enacted the [[Systematization (Romania)|systematisation]] programme, which consisted of the demolition and reconstruction of existing hamlets, villages, towns, and cities, in whole or in part, in order to make place to standardised apartment blocks across the country (''blocuri'').<ref name="turnock54"/> Under this ideology, Ceaușescu built [[Centrul Civic]] of Bucharest in the 1980s, which contains the [[Palace of the Parliament]], in the place of the former historic center.

Even by the late 1980s, [[sanitary conditions]] in most Eastern Bloc countries were generally far from adequate.<ref name="sillince18">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Sillince|1990|p=18}}</ref> For all countries for which data existed, 60% of dwellings had a density of greater than one person per room between 1966 and 1975.<ref name="sillince18"/> The average in western countries for which data was available approximated 0.5 persons per room.<ref name="sillince18"/> Problems were aggravated by poor quality finishes on new dwellings often causing occupants to undergo a certain amount of finishing work and additional repairs.<ref name="sillince18"/>
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: left"
|+Housing quality in the Eastern Bloc by the 1980s<ref name="sillince19">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Sillince|1990|pp=19–20}}</ref>
|-
!Country
!Adequate sanitation % (year)
!Piped water %
!Central heating %
!Inside toilet %
!More than 1 person/room %
|-
|align=left|[[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a
|-
|align=left|[[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] || n/a || 66.1% || 7.5% || 28.0% || 60.2%
|-
|align=left|[[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]] || 60.5% (1983) || 75.3% || 30.9% || 52.4% || 67.9%
|-
|align=left|[[East Germany]] || 70.0% (1985) || 82.1% || 72.2% || 43.4% || n/a
|-
|align=left|[[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]] || 60.0% (1984)|| 64% (1980) || n/a || 52.5% (1980) || 64.4%
|-
|align=left|[[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]] || 50.0% (1980) || 47.3% || 22.2% || 33.4% || 83.0%
|-
|align=left|[[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] || 50.0% (1980) || 12.3% (1966) || n/a || n/a || 81.5%
|-
|align=left|[[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]] || 50.0% (1980) || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a
|-
|align=left|[[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] || 69.8% (1981)|| 93.2% || 84.2% || 89.7% || 83.1%
|}
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: left"
|+Housing quality in Hungary (1949–1990)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nepszamlalas.hu/hun/kotetek/11/tables/load1_3.html|title=Központi Statisztikai Hivatal|website=www.nepszamlalas.hu|access-date=23 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050129024838/http://www.nepszamlalas.hu/hun/kotetek/11/tables/load1_3.html|archive-date=29 January 2005|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
!Year
!Houses/flats total
!With piped water
!With sewage disposal
!With inside toilet
!With piped gas
|-
|align=left|1949 || 2,466,514 || 420,644 (17.1%) || – || 306,998 (12.5%) || 174,186 (7.1%)
|-
|align=left|1960 || 2,757,625 || 620,600 (22.5%) || – || 440,737 (16%) || 373,124 (13.5%)
|-
|align=left|1970 || 3,118,096 || 1,370,609 (44%) || 1,167,055 (37.4%) || 838,626 (26.9%) || 1,571,691 (50.4%)
|-
|align=left|1980 || 3,542,418 || 2,268,014 (64%) || 2,367,274 (66.8%) || 1,859,677 (52.5%) || 2,682,143 (75.7%)
|-
|align=left|1990 || 3,853,288 || 3,209,930 (83.3%) || 3,228,257 (83.8%) || 2,853,834 (74%) || 3,274,514 (85%)
|}
The worsening shortages of the 1970s and 1980s occurred during an increase in the quantity of dwelling stock relative to population from 1970 to 1986.<ref name="sillince14">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Sillince|1990|p=14}}</ref> Even for new dwellings, average dwelling size was only {{convert|61.3|m2}} in the Eastern Bloc compared with {{convert|113.5|m2}} in ten western countries for which comparable data was available.<ref name="sillince14"/> Space standards varied considerably, with the average new dwelling in the Soviet Union in 1986 being only 68% the size of its equivalent in Hungary.<ref name="sillince14"/> Apart from exceptional cases, such as [[East Germany]] in 1980–1986 and [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] in 1970–1980, space standards in newly built dwellings rose before the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="sillince14"/> Housing size varied considerably across time, especially after the oil crisis in the Eastern Bloc; for instance, 1990-era West German homes had an average floor space of {{convert|83|m2}}, compared to an average dwelling size in the GDR of {{convert|67|m2}} in 1967.<ref name="berlinwall">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Pugh|2008|p=135}}</ref><ref name="germanhousing">{{cite web |url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-4908.html |title=Germany – Housing |publisher=Country-data.com |access-date=19 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923222624/http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-4908.html |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: left"
|+Housing characteristics in new dwellings of the Eastern Bloc<ref name="sillince15">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Sillince|1990|p=15}}</ref>
|-
! || colspan=3|Floor space/dwelling || colspan="3" |People/dwelling
|-
!Country
!1970
!1980
!1986
!1970
!1986
|-
|align=center|Western Bloc ||colspan=3 align=center| {{convert|113.5|m2}}|| n/a || n/a
|-
|align=left|[[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a || n/a
|-
|align=left|[[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] || {{convert|63.7|m2}} || {{convert|59.0|m2}} || {{convert|66.9|m2}} ||3.8 || 2.8
|-
|align=left|[[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]] || {{convert|67.2|m2}} || {{convert|73.8|m2}} || {{convert|81.8|m2}} || 3.4 || 2.7
|-
|align=left|[[East Germany]] || {{convert|55.0|m2}} || {{convert|62.7|m2}} || {{convert|61.2|m2}} || 2.9 || 2.4
|-
|align=left|[[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]] || {{convert|61.5|m2}} || {{convert|67.0|m2}} || {{convert|83.0|m2}} || 3.4 || 2.7
|-
|align=left|[[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]] || {{convert|54.3|m2}} || {{convert|64.0|m2}} || {{convert|71.0|m2}} || 4.2 || 3.5
|-
|align=left|[[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] || {{convert|44.9|m2}} || {{convert|57.0|m2}} || {{convert|57.5|m2}} || 3.6 || 2.8
|-
|align=left|[[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]] || {{convert|46.8|m2}} || {{convert|52.3|m2}} || {{convert|56.8|m2}} || 4.1 || 3.2
|-
|align=left|[[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] || {{convert|59.2|m2}} || {{convert|70.9|m2}} || {{convert|72.5|m2}} || n/a || 3.4
|}
Poor housing was one of the four major factors (others being poor living conditions, increased female employment and abortion as an encouraged means of birth control) which led to declining birth rates throughout the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="sillince35">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Sillince|1990|p=35}}</ref>