With the opening of the 21st century, the preference which the elderly have for welfare housing has changed from suburban to urban. The two main factors for this shift are a more convenient transportation system, and better medical facilities. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the current size of the service facilities for urban-type welfare housing in order to build a reference for future planning. To conduct this research, a review of literature was conducted on urban welfare housing available in the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The result of this study can be summarized as follows: First, although the facility conditions of the US and Japan are similar to Korea, Japan appears to pay more attention to "bath-style" facilities. Second, the elderly are highly satisfied with their dwelling facilities, but they need larger storage space. Third, the elderly are satisfied with their service facilities, but sport facilities, especially swimming pools, are not up to par, and therefore more careful design attention is called for here. Lastly, the size of the service facilities, considering the gross area and the number of elderly, are presented.