Overcrowded households

Published 10 October 2017

Last updated 11 October 2017 - see all updates

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• around 678,000 (3%) of the 22.6 million households in England are overcrowded in 2015/16

• most ethnic minority households were more likely to experience overcrowding than White British households

• around 2% of White British households experienced overcrowding compared with 30% of Bangladeshi households

• in every socio-economic group, age group and type of housing tenure, White British people were less likely than any other ethnic group to live in overcrowded households, as well as in most regions and income bands

Things you need to know

Compared with White British households, ethnic minority households tend to be younger, to have lived in England for a shorter time and to be located in urban areas. They are also likely to live in larger households and in rented accommodation.

So that there is a large enough number of ethnic minority households to produce reliable findings, the data is taken from the English Housing Survey (EHS), 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16, combined.

Information about households available from the EHS Headline and Annual Reports is normally based on a single 12 month period (April to March) of the survey, so some of the statistics used here may not match those in the Headline and Annual Reports.

The commentary has focused on findings based on at least 30 households to ensure that we report reliable findings. For this reason, information is not provided about people from Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Mixed White and Asian, Mixed White and Black Caribbean or Any Other Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups.

The EHS is a ‘sample survey’: it collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach 'findings’) about the total population.

For example, EHS findings might include the percentage of households that are overcrowded.

The commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.

Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they can are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.

What the data measures

This data measures household overcrowding and how different ethnic groups are affected.

Overcrowding is measured using the bedroom standard. This is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (based on the age, sex and relationship of household members) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household.

For example, each married or cohabiting couple would be allowed a bedroom, as would an individual aged 21 or over and each pair of adolescents or children of the same sex. The bedroom standard is described in detail in the English Housing Survey Headline Report 2015-16 (PDF opens in a new window or tab)

A household is counted as overcrowded if it has fewer bedrooms than it needs according to the bedroom standard.

The figures come from the English Housing Survey (EHS) 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. The survey involves face-to-face interviews with about 13,300 randomly selected households every year. These are used to make estimates for the 22.6 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 in England.

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.

The EHS has ethnicity information on the household reference person as well as all other members of the household. The ‘household reference person’ is the person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented, or who is otherwise responsible for it.

Some households have people from different ethnic backgrounds; where this happens, we have used the ethnic background of the household reference person.

Nearly every household reference person – more than 99.8% interviewed – provided information on their ethnicity.

At the geographical level, the data is shown for the nine regions of England: North East, North West, Yorkshire & Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, London, South East and the South West.

The ethnic categories used in this data

For comparisons made at national level (England), this data uses the standardised 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

For data analysed both by ethnicity and by socio-economic group, income, region, age and tenure, the following binary category has been used:

• White British and Other – White British people compared with all other groups (including White ethnic minorities and all other ethnic minorities)

This is because the number of people surveyed to generate estimates for the population as a whole becomes too small to be reliable when also broken down by ethnicity and by another factor like socio-economic group or income.

Data is therefore grouped to a size where estimates become reliable. In this case, information which is broken down by ethnicity and another factor compares White British with Other.

2. Overcrowded households by ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of overcrowded households by ethnicity

Ethnicity	%	Overcrowded households	All households
Asian
Bangladeshi	30	32,465	108,241
Chinese	7	9,770	132,162
Indian	8	36,836	486,845
Pakistani	15	50,107	327,347
Asian other	10	22,247	213,555
Black
Black African	15	53,154	360,219
Black Caribbean	8	22,339	285,256
Black other	16	5,363	33,438
Mixed
Mixed White/Asian	3	1,904	64,126
Mixed White/Black African	7	5,239	75,210
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	4	4,374	98,107
Mixed other	5	2,171	43,212
White
White British	2	315,474	18,827,771
White Irish	5	9,689	202,418
White Gypsy/Traveller
White other	7	78,902	1,052,401
Other
Arab	11	7,007	64,164
Any other	8	19,653	233,069

Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Overcrowded households Overcrowded households by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• 678,000 (3%) of the 22.6 million households in England were overcrowded in 2015/16

• Bangladeshi households has the highest rates of overcrowding at 30% (around 32,000 households)

• 2% of White British households experienced overcrowding, which is around 315,000 households

• although the survey estimates show differences in the rates of overcrowding for Mixed White and Black Caribbean, Mixed White and Asian and Other Mixed households compared with White British households in this sample, these are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about the differences between these groups in the total population

3. Overcrowded households by ethnicity and socio-economic group

• Location: England
• Time period: 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of overcrowded households by ethnicity socio-economic group

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Socio-economic group	White British %	White British Overcrowded households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Overcrowded households	All other ethnic groups All households
Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations	1	59,423	7,583,359	6	87,153	1,376,604
Intermediate occupations	2	65,141	3,908,430	11	80,223	734,328
Routine and manual occupations	3	162,790	6,274,838	11	146,653	1,283,093

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Overcrowded households Overcrowded households by ethnicity and socio-economic group Summary

This data shows that:

• in every socio-economic group, ethnic minority households were more likely to experience overcrowding than White British households

4. Overcrowded households by ethnicity and income

• Location: England
• Time period: 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of overcrowded households by ethnicity and weekly income

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Weekly income band	White British %	White British Overcrowded households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Overcrowded households	All other ethnic groups All households
Up to £99	0	0	219,652	1	856	63,678
£100 to £199	1	12,947	1,658,642	7	22,847	333,662
£200 to £299	1	27,102	2,330,425	7	29,454	401,075
£300 to £399	2	35,323	2,167,669	13	63,438	474,903
£400 to £499	2	37,957	1,769,992	13	56,462	426,782
£500 to £599	2	33,553	1,640,197	12	40,148	332,926
£600 to £699	2	35,478	1,540,292	8	22,416	296,515
£700 to £799	2	29,271	1,283,624	8	20,453	261,015
£800 to £899	2	20,393	1,076,614	9	19,869	210,022
£900 to £999	2	13,762	854,316	12	19,808	170,613
£1000 and above	2	69,688	4,284,737	8	65,635	814,503

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Overcrowded households Overcrowded households by ethnicity and income Summary

This data shows that:

• in almost every income band, ethnic minority households were more likely to experience overcrowding than White British households

• although the survey estimates show differences in the rates of overcrowding for those earning less than £99 a week in this sample, these are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about the differences between White British and ethnic minority households in the total population

5. Overcrowded households by ethnicity and area

• Location: England
• Time period: 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of overcrowded households by ethnicity and region

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Region	White British %	White British Overcrowded households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Overcrowded households	All other ethnic groups All households
North East	2	17,632	1,083,531	7	3,812	57,729
North West	2	41,480	2,732,893	7	21,601	321,434
Yorkshire and The Humber	1	25,600	2,014,231	6	14,757	230,373
East Midlands	1	22,872	1,710,066	8	17,257	227,931
West Midlands	2	38,131	1,982,713	8	27,857	339,739
East of England	2	33,222	2,169,371	8	24,426	321,024
London	3	47,541	1,723,591	13	205,215	1,643,031
South East	2	52,399	3,193,654	8	36,299	486,885
South West	2	36,598	2,217,722	6	10,161	157,547

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Overcrowded households Overcrowded households by ethnicity and area Summary

This data shows that:

• in almost every region of England, ethnic minority households were more likely to experience overcrowding than White British households

• although the survey estimates show differences in the rates of overcrowding in the North East between ethnic minorities and White British households in this sample, these are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about differences between these groups in the total population

6. Overcrowded households by ethnicity and age

• Location: England
• Time period: 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of overcrowded households by ethnicity and age

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Age group	White British %	White British Overcrowded households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Overcrowded households	All other ethnic groups All households
16 - 24 yrs old	3	17,244	573,254	9	17,354	202,590
25 - 34 yrs old	3	74,103	2,396,932	10	87,225	901,571
35 - 44 yrs old	3	90,418	2,941,139	12	125,466	1,044,794
45 - 54 yrs old	2	90,827	3,766,221	12	91,065	761,583
55 - 64 yrs old	1	29,835	3,249,826	6	24,590	413,099
65 yrs old or over	0	13,047	5,900,399	3	15,684	462,057

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Overcrowded households Overcrowded households by ethnicity and age Summary

This data shows that:

• in all age groups, ethnic minority households were more likely to experience overcrowding than White British households

7. Overcrowded households by ethnicity and housing tenure

• Location: England
• Time period: 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households by ethnicity and housing tenure

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Housing tenure	White British %	White British Overcrowded households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Overcrowded households	All other ethnic groups All households
Owner occupiers	1	102,116	12,733,724	6	88,075	1,574,662
Social rented housing	5	143,673	3,109,053	14	114,066	804,976
Private rented housing	2	69,685	2,984,994	11	159,244	1,406,057

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Overcrowded households Overcrowded households by ethnicity and housing tenure Summary

This data shows that:

• ethnic minority households were more likely to experience overcrowding than White British households, regardless of whether they owned or rented their home

8. Methodology

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:

Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population.

For example, a survey which contains 25% females and 75% males will not accurately reflect the views of the general population which we know is around 50% male and 50% female.

Statisticians rebalance or ‘weight’ the survey results to more accurately represent the general population. In the EHS, weighting makes the results more representative of the 22.6 million households in England.

Suppression rules and disclosure control

Estimates based on less than 30 households have been suppressed to ensure that we report reliable findings.

The analysis has been done by binary classification only where broken down by National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), income, region, age or tenure. This prevents small numbers appearing in the table and avoids the potential for identification of individuals. The data are deposited in the UK Data Archive, after a wide range of disclosure control has been applied.

Strictly disclosure controlled data in the form of derived variables are available under the End-User Licence (e.g. ethnicity is given as white/ethnic minority).

Data sets with some more details are made available under Special Licence after the users has applied to the EHS Team for access.

Potentially disclosive data, including low-level geography variables (postcode and LSOA) are available only through the UKDA Secure Access which requires users to undergo special training, including on disclosure control, before access is given.

Rounding

Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number but more detailed estimates to 1 decimal place are available in the downloads.

Quality and methodology information

9. Data sources

Source

English Housing Survey

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.

10. Download the data

Overcrowded households - Spreadsheet (csv) 17 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, geography, age group, NS-SEC (socio-economic group), income, region, housing tenure, value, denominator, numerator and sample size

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 11 October 2017

full page history

1. 11 October 2017 Technical change: Updated url to match page title.
2. 10 October 2017 First published

From: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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