Housing with damp problems
Published
There is a new version of this page. View the latest version.
1. Main facts and figures
- in the 2 years to March 2018, an average of 4% of households in England had damp in at least one room of their home (871,000 homes)
- Bangladeshi and Black African households were more likely to have damp problems 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
The data for this analysis comes from the English Housing Survey (EHS). The EHS surveys a random sample of people to make generalisations about the whole population.
The commentary for this data includes only reliable findings. Findings are reliable when we can be confident they reflect the total population. This means we would get similar findings 19 times out of 20 if we carried out the same survey on different random people.
Every year, 2 years’ worth of data is combined and an average is worked out. For example, the data for the most recent period (April 2016 to March 2018) is an average of the data for the years 2016/17 and 2017/18. This makes the data more reliable.
You should avoid comparing these findings with those from last year. This is because last year’s findings were based on data from 2015/16 and 2016/17, so the source for last year’s and this year’s findings overlap.
Information published in the headline report and other annual reports is based on a single year rather than 2 years' data. As a result, the figures shown here may not match those in the English Housing Survey reports.
The number of Gypsy or Irish Traveller households surveyed was very small. This page doesn't include estimates for this group, partly to protect respondents’ confidentiality. The number is also too small to make reliable generalisations.
What the data measures
This data measures the percentage of households in England with damp in one or more rooms.
A home with damp has either:
- rising damp – the slow upward movement of water in the lower sections of walls and other ground-supported structures
- penetrating damp (where water penetrates a building through walls, roofs or windows and appears inside) or serious condensation or mould
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 home. 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 this data, the household's ethnicity is that of the ‘household reference person’ (the person in whose name the home is owned or rented).
Nearly all the household reference persons – more than 99.8% interviewed – gave information on their ethnicity.
The ethnic categories used in this data
This data uses the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
2. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | % | Number ('000s) | All households ('000s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asian | |||
| Bangladeshi | 12 | 18 | 146 |
| Chinese | 2 | 2 | 94 |
| Indian | 3 | 12 | 482 |
| Pakistani | 6 | 19 | 319 |
| Asian other | 9 | 18 | 204 |
| Black | |||
| Black African | 10 | 41 | 432 |
| Black Caribbean | 2 | 7 | 289 |
| 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 | 10 | 6 | 57 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 12 | 11 | 91 |
| Mixed other | 0 | 0 | 121 |
| White | |||
| White British | 4 | 670 | 19,092 |
| White Irish | 2 | 5 | 211 |
| 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 | 4 | 47 | 1,208 |
| Other | |||
| Arab | 2 | 2 | 95 |
| Any other | 4 | 10 | 273 |
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 the 2 years to March 2018, an average of 4% of households in England had damp in at least one room of their home (871,000 homes)
- Bangladeshi and Black African households were most likely to have damp in their home out of all ethnic groups, at 12% and 10% respectively
- although Mixed White and Black Caribbean households were more likely than many of the other ethnic groups to experience damp in their homes, findings for this group are based on a small number of households and may not be reliable
3. Methodology
Around 13,300 households a year take part in face-to-face interviews for the English Housing Survey.
The homes of around 6,000 of those households are also surveyed by a qualified surveyor. These are chosen at random. In addition, another 200 empty properties are surveyed to get a complete picture of homes in England.
Weighting:
Weighting is applied to the sample to produce estimates for the 23 million households in England as a whole.
Weighting adjusts the results of a survey to make them representative of the population and make them more reliable.
For example, a survey of 25 women and 75 men will not accurately reflect the views of the general population, which is around 50% male and 50% female.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
These figures don't include estimates based on fewer than 30 households. This is because it's hard to make reliable generalisations based on a small number of respondents.
See the guidance on English Housing Survey datasets for information on accessing other, more detailed, data.
Rounding
Percentages shown in the charts and tables are rounded to the nearest whole number. Download the data to get more detailed estimates.
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
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. 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