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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2015 to 2017, 4% of the estimated 23 million households in England had rising damp or other damp problems in at least one room of their home (944,000 homes)
- Pakistani and Black African households were more likely to have damp problems in their home than White British households
Things you need to know
Compared with White British households, ethnic minority households tend to:
- be younger
- have lived in England for a shorter time
- be located in urban areas
- live in larger households
- live in rented accommodation
To ensure that there is a large enough number of ethnic minority households to produce reliable findings, the data is drawn from the English Housing Survey (EHS) for 2 years combined: 2015/16 and 2016/17.
You should avoid comparing these findings with those from last year. This is because last year’s findings were based on EHS data from 2014/15 and 2015/16, so the source for last year’s and this year’s findings overlap.
Information published in the EHS headline report and other annual reports is usually based on a 12-month period, rather than the 2 years’ combined data used here. As a result, the statistics shown here may not match those in the EHS reports.
The commentary has focused on findings based on subgroups of at least 30 households to ensure that only reliable findings are reported.
The number of Gypsy or Irish Traveller households in the data is very small. To avoid disclosing personal information about individuals in those groups, information about them is not presented in some of the tables and charts.
The English Housing Survey (EHS) is a ‘sample survey’: it collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach 'findings’) about the total population.
The commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.
Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they can be repeated, and are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.
Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 19 times out of 20 we would get similar findings.
What the data measures
This data measures the percentage of households in England that had damp problems in one or more rooms. The data is broken down by ethnicity, socioeconomic group, age group, income, and area.
It shows the percentage of households in each ethnic group in England who had damp problems in their home.
A home with a damp problem is one with any of the following:
- rising damp – the slow upward movement of water in the lower sections of walls and other ground-supported structures
- penetrating damp (where water penetrates the outside of a building through walls, roofs or windows and appears inside) or serious condensation or mould in any room
The figures are drawn from the 2015/16 and 2016/17 English Housing Survey (EHS). The survey involves face-to-face interviews with about 13,300 randomly-selected households every year.
These are used to make estimates for the 23 million households in England as a whole.
The EHS is a national survey of people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of homes.
The information relates to households. A household is one person or a group of people (not necessarily related) who have the accommodation as their only or main residence. If it is a group, they must share cooking facilities and also share a living room, sitting room or dining area.
Some households contain people from different ethnic backgrounds. In these circumstances, the ethnic background of the ‘household reference person’ (usually the person in whose name the home is owned) is used to define the ethnic background of the household.
Nearly all the household reference persons – more than 99.8% interviewed – gave information on their ethnicity.
The ethnic categories used in this data
For comparisons made at national level, this data uses the following 18 ethnic groups based on the 2011 Census.
White:
- English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British
- Irish
- Gypsy, Traveller or Irish Traveller
- Any other White background
Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups:
- White and Black Caribbean
- White and Black African
- White and Asian
- Any other Mixed/Multiple ethnic background
Asian/Asian British:
- Indian
- Pakistani
- Bangladeshi
- Chinese
- Any other Asian background
Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:
- African
- Caribbean
- Any other Black/African/Caribbean background
Other ethnic group:
- Arab
- Any other ethnic group
2. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | % | Number ('000s) | All households ('000s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asian | |||
| Bangladeshi | 8 | 11 | 135 |
| Chinese | 0 | 0 | 87 |
| Indian | 5 | 22 | 463 |
| Pakistani | 10 | 33 | 331 |
| Asian other | 11 | 25 | 224 |
| Black | |||
| Black African | 8 | 32 | 414 |
| Black Caribbean | 4 | 14 | 334 |
| Black other | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed | |||
| Mixed White/Asian | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed White/Black African | 11 | 8 | 74 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 5 | 5 | 96 |
| Mixed other | 0 | 0 | 69 |
| White | |||
| White British | 4 | 703 | 19,010 |
| White Irish | 3 | 7 | 192 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| White other | 5 | 62 | 1,129 |
| Other | |||
| Arab | 11 | 10 | 85 |
| Any other | 6 | 14 | 247 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Housing with damp problems By ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2015 to 2017, 4% of White British households had rising damp or other damp problems in at least one room (around 703,000 households)
- Pakistani and Black African households were most likely to have damp problems in their home out of all ethnic groups, at 10% and 8% respectively
3. Methodology
The English Housing Survey involves face-to-face interviews with a random sample of about 13,300 households a year.
The dwellings of about 6,000 of the interviewed households are randomly selected to take part in the physical survey element carried out by a qualified surveyor. In addition, a random sample of around 200 of the dwellings identified by the interviewer as vacant are also included in the physical survey element.
Weighting:
Weights are applied to the sample to produce estimates for the 23 million households in England as a whole.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Estimates based on fewer than 30 households have not been included in these statistics, because small numbers of households make it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions.
More detailed data, including some potentially disclosive data, is protected by a range of disclosure controls. See the guidance on English Housing Survey datasets for information accessing this data.
Rounding
Percentages shown in the charts and tables are rounded to the nearest whole number. Download the data to see figures rounded to 1 decimal place.
Figures for the numerator and denominator are weighted and rounded to the nearest whole number in the download files. Therefore, calculations of the percentages using these values may differ to the percentage figures shown on this page, which have been calculated using unrounded figures.
Related publications
English Housing Survey information and publications.
Quality and methodology information
4. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Note on corrections or updates
Information published in the EHS headline report and other annual reports is usually based on a 12-month period, rather than the 2 years’ combined data used here. As a result, the statistics shown here may not match those in the EHS reports.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, time, time type, ethnicity, geography, value, denominator, numerator and sample size