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1. Main facts and figures
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the average age of White British first-time buyers was 33 years
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the average age of first time-buyers from Black African, Other Asian and Any Other backgrounds was higher than White British first-time buyers
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) 2014/15 and 2015/16.
Information about households available from the EHS Headline and Annual Reports is normally based on a 12-month period (April to March) of the survey. Because of this some of the statistics cited here may not match those in the Headline and Annual Reports.
The commentary only includes findings based on subgroups of at least 30 households to ensure that we report reliable findings. For this reason, estimates for Bangladeshi, Other Black, Mixed White and Asian, Mixed White and Black African, Mixed White and Black Caribbean, Other Mixed, Gypsy, Traveller or Irish Travellers, and Arab households have not been presented in some of the tables or charts.
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 who get help from their family to buy their own home.
The commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.
Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.
What the data measures
This data measures the average age of first-time buyers when they’re buying a home in England, broken down by ethnicity.
First-time buyers are home buyers who, when surveyed in 2014/15 or 2015/16, had bought a home for the first time in the previous 3 years.
The figures are drawn from the 2014/15 and 2015/16 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 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 they are a group they also must share cooking facilities and 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 dwelling is owned or rented or who is otherwise responsible for the accommodation.
Some households contain people from different ethnic backgrounds; in these circumstances, we have used the ethnic background of the household reference person to define the ethnic background of the household.
Nearly all the household reference persons – more than 99.8% interviewed – provided information on their ethnicity.
The ethnic categories used in this data
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
2. Average age of first-time buyers by ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Age |
|---|---|
| Asian | |
| Bangladeshi | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Chinese | 37 |
| Indian | 33 |
| Pakistani | 32 |
| Asian other | 36 |
| Black | |
| Black African | 38 |
| Black Caribbean | 35 |
| Black other | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed | |
| Mixed White/Asian | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed White/Black African | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Mixed other | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| White | |
| White British | 33 |
| White Irish | 36 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| White other | 34 |
| Other | |
| Arab | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| Any other | 38 |
Download table data for ‘Average age of first-time buyers by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Average age of first-time buyers by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Age of first-time buyers Average age of first-time buyers by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
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the average age of White British first-time buyers was 33 years – this was younger than first-time buyers from the Black African, Any Other background and Any Other Asian ethnic groups (at 38, 38 and 36 years respectively)
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first-time buyers from the White Irish, Any other White background, Indian, Chinese and Black Caribbean ethnic groups were the same age or older than White British first-time buyers on average – however, the number of households surveyed was too small to draw firm conclusions
3. Methodology
The EHS consists of:
- face-to-face interviews with a random sample of about 13,300 households a year
- a physical inspection of the homes of about 6,000 of the interviewed households – these are selected at random and carried out by a surveyor
The surveyor also inspects a random sample of about 200 properties identified by the interviewer as vacant.
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. This helps to make them more reliable.
Survey weights are usually applied to make sure the survey sample has broadly the same gender, age, ethnic and geographic make up as 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 not been included in these statistics, because small numbers of households make it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions. 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
Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number. You can get more detailed estimates to 1 decimal place if you download the data.
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: year, ethnicity, mean age, standard deviation, sample size