 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.Even for new dwellings, average dwelling size was only in the Eastern Bloc compared with in ten western countries for which comparable data was available.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.