Home ownership

Published 10 October 2017

Last updated 22 February 2018 - see all updates

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• 14.3 million (63%) of the estimated 22 million households in England in 2015 to 2016 were in home ownership

• ethnic minority householders were less likely to be in owner-occupation than White British households – except for Indian, Mixed White and Asian and Pakistani households

• within every region, socio-economic group, income band and all age groups, White British people were more likely to own their own homes than any other ethnic group, including White ethnic minorities

Things you need to know

Compared to White groups, people from a ethnic minority background tend to be younger, resident in England for a shorter time and located in urban areas. They are also likely to live in larger households. This may explain differences in levels of home ownership.

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, as well as the EHS 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, so some of the statistics cited here may not match those in the Headline and Annual Reports.

The commentary has focused on findings based on subgroups of at least 30 households to ensure that we report reliable findings.

The number of Gypsies and Irish travellers interviewed 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.

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 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 how likely people in different ethnic groups are to own their own homes.

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 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, and (for a group) share cooking facilities and share a living room or 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 data is shown for the nine regions of England: North East, North West, Yorkshire & Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and the South West.

The ethnic categories used in this data

For comparisons made at national level, 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 and age, 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 that were surveyed to generate estimates for the population as a whole becomes too small to be reliable when broken down both by ethnicity (in either detailed or broad categories) 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 broken down by ethnicity and another factor compares White British with Other.

2. Home ownership by ethnicity

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

Percentage and number of households who own their own home by ethnicity

Ethnicity	%	Homeowners	All households
Asian
Bangladeshi	39	38,000	98,000
Chinese	39	50,000	129,000
Indian	68	342,000	504,000
Pakistani	64	212,000	333,000
Asian other	43	93,000	218,000
Black
Black African	21	78,000	368,000
Black Caribbean	39	112,000	289,000
Black other	37	14,000	38,000
Mixed
Mixed White/Asian	68	45,000	66,000
Mixed White/Black African	24	19,000	80,000
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	26	26,000	99,000
Mixed other	34	11,000	32,000
White
White British	68	12,733,000	18,808,000
White Irish	52	96,000	184,000
White Gypsy/Traveller
White other	32	341,000	1,078,000
Other
Arab	24	15,000	63,000
Any other	35	79,000	227,000

Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Home ownership Home ownership by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• in the period studied, 63% of households in England (around 14.3 million households) were homeowners, either because they owned their home outright or were buying it with a mortgage

• 68% of White British households were in owner-occupation

• Indian, Mixed White and Asian and Pakistani households had similar rates of home ownership to White British households, at 68%, 68% and 64% respectively

• Black African, Arab, and Mixed White and Black African households had the lowest rates of home ownership, at 21%, 24% and 24% respectively

3. Home ownership by ethnicity and socio-economic group

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

Percentage and number of households who own their home by ethnicity and socio-economic group

	White British			Other
Socio-economic group	White British %	White British Homeowners	White British All households	Other %	Other Homeowners	Other All households
Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations	82	6,225,042	7,635,539	55	771,276	1,400,849
Intermediate occupations	71	2,752,630	3,857,408	46	321,335	702,682
Routine and manual occupations	52	3,259,537	6,260,530	28	372,500	1,311,313

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Home ownership Home ownership by ethnicity and socio-economic group Summary

This data shows that:

• in every socio-economic group of England, White British households were more likely to be in home ownership than ethnic minority households

4. Home ownership by ethnicity and age group

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

Percentage and number of households who own their home by ethnicity and age group

	White British			Other
Age group	White British %	White British Homeowners	White British All households	Other %	Other Homeowners	Other All households
16 - 24 yrs old	11	61,204	547,604	4	9,175	209,064
25 - 34 yrs old	43	1,037,801	2,400,150	22	194,540	888,814
35 - 44 yrs old	63	1,839,610	2,909,500	42	435,264	1,043,931
45 - 54 yrs old	72	2,689,665	3,746,787	49	387,692	795,069
55 - 64 yrs old	76	2,449,380	3,240,797	59	250,217	426,164
65 yrs old or over	78	4,655,757	5,963,859	66	296,105	445,322

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Home ownership Home ownership by ethnicity and age group Summary

This data shows that:

• in every age group, White British households were more likely to be in home ownership than ethnic minority households

5. Home ownership by ethnicity and area

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

Percentage and number of households who own their home by ethnicity and area

	White British			Other
Region	White British %	White British Homeowners	White British All households	Other %	Other Homeowners	Other All households
North East	62	669,965	1,082,079	40	24,025	60,660
North West	66	1,800,777	2,726,087	48	159,479	332,876
Yorkshire and The Humber	64	1,277,607	1,993,215	47	117,953	251,038
East Midlands	69	1,190,589	1,716,315	46	102,383	223,700
West Midlands	68	1,336,007	1,973,387	49	174,503	355,356
East of England	70	1,522,381	2,179,257	45	143,253	316,271
London	62	1,062,188	1,721,643	36	582,810	1,615,633
South East	72	2,300,230	3,196,339	42	207,876	492,775
South West	71	1,573,674	2,220,374	38	60,712	160,054

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Home ownership Home ownership by ethnicity and area Summary

This data shows that:

• in every region of England, White British households were more likely to be in home ownership than ethnic minority households

6. Home ownership by ethnicity and weekly income

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

Percentage and number of households who own their home by ethnicity and weekly income

	White British			Other
Weekly income	White British %	White British Homeowners	White British All households	Other %	Other Homeowners	Other All households
Up to £99	7	13,026	183,039	0	0	64,744
£100 to £199	36	588,678	1,623,813	18	58,791	319,019
£200 to £299	50	1,148,278	2,290,104	30	116,474	382,066
£300 to £399	59	1,241,118	2,121,559	26	129,777	490,875
£400 to £499	63	1,133,141	1,793,046	35	140,797	399,204
£500 to £599	66	1,090,733	1,641,076	32	110,654	343,358
£600 to £699	73	1,111,534	1,521,753	41	129,579	312,920
£700 to £799	77	955,013	1,234,900	47	124,852	266,681
£800 to £899	81	887,284	1,099,098	52	110,086	209,729
£900 to £999	83	728,261	875,735	55	104,294	188,360
£1000 and above	87	3,835,807	4,424,028	66	547,689	831,408

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Home ownership Home ownership by ethnicity and weekly income Summary

This data shows that:

• in every income band, White British households were more likely to be in home ownership than ethnic minority households

7. 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. Weights are applied to the sample to produce estimates for the 22 million households in England as a whole.

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. The analysis has been done by binary classification only where broken down by socio-economic group, income, region or age. This prevents small numbers appearing in the table and avoids the potential for identification of individuals.

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

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

Related publications

English Housing Survey 2103 to 2104

Further technical information

English Housing Survey: guidance and methodology

8. 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.

9. Download the data

Home ownership - Spreadsheet (csv) 15 KB

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

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 22 February 2018

full page history

1. 22 February 2018 Minor updates for style and accuracy
2. 11 October 2017 Technical change: Updated url to match page title.
3. 10 October 2017 First published

From: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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