Official national estimates vary significantly in methodology. France and Germany count accommodated homeless; Nordics focus on rough sleeping. All figures are the most recent available.
Sources: OECD Affordable Housing Database · national statistical offices · FEANTSA. Definitions vary by country.
Standardised ETHOS light methodology enables meaningful comparison across cities. Counts cover roofless (ETHOS 1), houseless sheltered (ETHOS 2), and temporary accommodation (ETHOS 3).
★ Recommended pilot cities based on count size
Brussels (9,777, Nov 2024) and Amsterdam (15,731, Q1 2024) use own methodology — not directly comparable to EU Homelessness Count figures above.
Each city was selected on data density, existing service infrastructure, administrative data environment, and operational fit with the It Means model.
Places with more services record more service users. A city with 50 emergency beds records 50 homeless people. A city with no beds records zero — not because there are none, but because there is nowhere to count them. Rough sleeping is systematically undercounted across Europe. EU-SILC data shows most homelessness is hidden — people staying with family or friends, in temporary arrangements, or in overcrowded housing. Platform transparency and the append-only ledger directly address this by creating a continuous, consent-based record of service use that builds a more accurate picture over time.
City selection and pool sizing uses four data layers, weighted by data availability and recency.