Accredited official statistics

Chapter 1: Profile of households and dwellings

Published 14 December 2023

Applies to England

Introduction

There are three main housing tenures in England: owner occupation and the private and social rented sectors. Owner occupation includes households who own their home outright and households who have a mortgage. The social rented sector includes both local authority and housing association homes.

This chapter begins with an overall profile of households living in these three different tenures, including by region and by various demographic characteristics. It then goes on to discuss an overall profile of the English housing stock, including the age, type and size of dwellings by tenure and whether homes have outside space.

For an introduction and summary of main findings in this report as a whole, please see the Introduction and Key Findings page.

Trends in tenure

In 2022-23, there were an estimated 24.4 million households in England living in self-contained accommodation, Annex Table 1.1. This figure excludes those living in institutional accommodation such as nursing homes or halls of residence.

Owner occupation remained the largest tenure group, with 15.8 million households, representing 65% of all households in 2022-23. Ownership rates were highest in 2003 at 71% of all households. Compared to 10 years ago, owner occupation has not significantly changed, Figure 1.1.

In 2022-23, the private rented sector accounted for 4.6 million or 19% of households. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the proportion of private rented households was steady at around 9% to 11%. While the sector has doubled in size since the early 2000s, the rate has remained around 19% or 20% since 2013-14.

The social rented sector, at 4.0 million households (16%), is the smallest tenure, following a longer-term downward trend which has stabilised over the last decade or so.

Figure 1.1: Trends in tenure (proportions), 1980 to 2022-23

^{Base: all households
Note: underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.1
Sources:
1980 to 1991: DOE Labour Force Survey Housing Trailer;
1992 to 2008: ONS Labour Force Survey;
2008-09 onwards: English Housing Survey, full household sample}

While the overall proportion for the owner occupied and social sectors has not changed, the composition of the groups has. Owner occupation is made up of two distinct groups: outright owners and those buying with a mortgage (referred to throughout this report as mortgagors). Since 2013-14 there have been more outright owners than mortgagors and in 2022-23, 35% of households were outright owners while 29% were mortgagors. The increase in the number and proportion of outright owners is at least partly explained by population ageing, with large numbers of people reaching retirement age, paying off their mortgages and becoming outright owners, Figure 1.2. 

The composition of the social sector has also changed in the last decade. In 2008-09, the social rented sector accounted for 18% of households with 9% (2.0 million) renting from housing associations and 9% (1.9 million) renting from local authorities. In 2022-23, more households (10% or 2.5 million) rented from housing associations, and fewer (6% or 1.5 million) from local authorities.

Figure 1.2: Trends in tenure (thousands of households), 1980 to 2022-23

^{Base: all households
Notes:
1) underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.1
2) separate housing association/local authority estimates are not available prior to 2008-09. This is because a large number of HA tenants wrongly report that that they are LA tenants; most commonly because their home used to be owned by the council but had transferred to a housing association. Since 2008-09, an adjustment has been made for this.
Sources:
1980 to 1991: DOE Labour Force Survey Housing Trailer;
1992 to 2008: ONS Labour Force Survey;
2008-09 onwards: English Housing Survey, full household sample}

When compared with the other English regions, London has a different tenure profile. Renting is more prevalent and outright ownership is less prevalent in London than in the rest of England, Figure 1.3 and Annex Table 1.2.

In 2022-23, 31% of households in London were private renters, compared to 17% in the rest of England. Similarly, 21% of London households were social renters, compared to 16% in the rest of England.

There are similar proportions of households renting from housing association in London (11%) compared to the rest of England (10%). However, the proportion of households in London (10%) renting from a local authority was much higher than the proportion in the rest of England (6%).

In 2022-23, owner occupation rates were lower in London (49%) than in the rest of England (68%). This disparity is particularly pronounced in the proportion of outright owners in London compared to the rest of England. In London, 24% of households are outright owners, compared to 37% in the rest of England. There are a smaller proportion of mortgagors in London (25%) and in the rest of England (30%).

Figure 1.3: Tenure, London and the Rest of England, 2022-23

^{Base: all households
Note: underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.2
Source: English Housing Survey, full household sample}

Demographic and economic characteristics

In this section the demographic and economic profile of the household reference person (HRP) is explored in more detail. The HRP is the ‘householder’ in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented (see the glossary for further information).

Age

In 2022-23, the largest proportion of households had a HRP aged 65 or over (29%), equating to 7.2 million households. There was a small proportion (3%) of households with a HRP in the 16-24 age group and 15% to 18% in the middle four age groups (those aged 25 to 64), Annex Table 1.3.

There was some variation of age by tenure. Households with a HRP aged 65 or over made up the greatest proportion of the owner occupied (36%) and social rented sector (28%), but the smallest proportion of private renters, along with those aged 55 to 64 (both 10%), Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4: Age of HRP, by tenure, 2022-23

^{Base: all households
Note: underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.3
Source: English Housing Survey, full household sample}

In the social rented sector, in 2022-23, there was a decrease in the proportion of households with a HRP aged 45 to 54 year olds since before the pandemic, falling to 18% from 22% in 2019-20. Concurrently, there was an increase in the proportion of 55 to 64 year olds from 17% to 19% in the same time period.

Household type and size

Household type and size were two variables where the EHS saw differences in both number and proportion when comparing data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to pre-pandemic data. Compared to pre-pandemic data, we saw an increase in single person households, and a resulting decrease in the overall average number of people per household. We are as yet unable to determine whether this is a real change or the result of changes in the mode of data collection.

In 2022-23, there were more male (16%) and female (18%) single households compared to 2019-20 (13% and 15% respectively). The proportions varied by tenure. The most female single households were in outright ownership (26%) and the most single male households were in the social rented sector (23%). In the private rented sector, there were more lone male households (20%) than lone female households (13%), Annex Table 1.3.

Not surprisingly, reflecting the age difference seen, the highest proportion of couples with no dependent children were in outright ownership (42%). Only 11% of households in the social rented sector were couples with dependent children.

In the EHS, household size is measured by the mean number of persons per household. In 2022-23, the mean number of persons per household was 2.2,  lower than in 2019-20 when it was 2.4.

Mortgagors had the highest average household size, 2.7 persons, while outright owners had the smallest, 1.8 persons. Private renters had a higher average household size of 2.3 persons compared to owner occupiers and social renters, (both 2.2 persons) and local authority households (2.3 persons) had a higher average size than housing associations (2.1 persons).

Ethnicity

In 2022-23, while the majority of owner occupier households were made up of households with a white HRP (91%), 9% were all ethnic minority households, within which 6% were Asian households.

The private rented sector was made up of a higher proportion of ethnic minority households (26%), including 13% of households that had an Asian HRP. This was a higher proportion than both the owner occupied sector (9% and 6%) and the social sector (20% and 6%). A larger proportion of black households made up the social sector (8%) driven by a higher proportion of local authority renters having a HRP from a black background – 12% compared to 6% renting from a housing association.

Economic status and income

In 2022-23, half of all households (50%) had a HRP working full-time, 10% were working part-time and 29% were retired. Around 2% of households were unemployed, 1% were in full-time education and 7% were ‘other inactive’, a group which includes those who had a long-term illness or disability and those who were looking after the family or home, Annex Table 1.3.

There was distinct variation by tenure. The highest proportion of households in work were private renters (65%), while the highest proportion of economically inactive households was in the social rented sector (24%), and the highest proportion retired was in the owner occupied sector (36%).

Among owner occupied households, 62% of outright owners had a retired HRP. In contrast, the majority (92%) mortgagors were working, with 84% in full-time work and 8% in part-time work.

Figure 1.5: Economic activity of HRP, by tenure, 2022-23

^{Base: all households
Note: underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.3
Source: English Housing Survey, full household sample}

There has been an increase in the number of households in full time education in the private rented sector in the last 3 years from 4% in 2019-20 to 6% in 2022-23.

In terms of income, we report on income quintiles, where all households are divided into five equal groups based on their income (i.e. those in the bottom 20%, the next 20% and so on). These can be used to compare income levels of specific groups to the overall population.

In 2022-23, social renters were concentrated in the lowest two income quintiles (47% were in the lowest income quintile and 25% in the second lowest), while mortgagors were concentrated in the two highest income quintiles (40% were in the top income quintile and 28% in the second highest).

Private renters and outright owners were more evenly spread across the quintiles, Figure 1.6.

There were no significant changes to this pattern when compared to the figures from 2019-20.  

Figure 1.6: Weekly household income, by tenure, 2022-23

^{Base: all households
Notes:
1) underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.3
2) first quintile: £76-£360, second: £360-£596, third: £596-£888, fourth: £888-£1,372, fifth: £1,372-£16,805
Source: English Housing Survey, full household sample}

Disability and long-term illness

The proportion of households with one or more members with a long-term illness or disability was 36% in 2022-23, an increase from 34% in 2019-20, Annex Table 1.3.

The tenure with the highest proportion of households containing someone with a disability was the social rented sector (56%). There were 33% in the owner occupied sector and 28% in the private rented sector.  

Internet access

In 2022-23, 93% of households in England had internet access at home. This is an increase from 90% in 2019-20. Almost all mortgagors (99%) had internet access at home, higher than private renters (95%) and outright owners (92%). Social renters (85%) were the least likely tenure to have access to the internet at home, Annex Table 1.3.

Housing Stock Profile

This section relates to physical dwellings and presents figures for ‘2022’. Field work was carried out between April 2021 and March 2023, and the data is weighted to a midpoint of April 2022. Dwellings refer to the physical building that may be shared by several households and refer to both occupied and vacant dwellings for 2022.

In 2022, there were an estimated 25.2 million residential dwellings in England, including both occupied and vacant homes. Of these, 16.2 million (64%) were owner occupied, 4.9 million (19%) were private rented, 1.6 million (6%) were local authority and 2.6 million (10%) were housing association homes, Figure 1.7 and Annex Table 1.6.

Figure 1.7: Dwellings, by tenure, 2022

^{Base: all dwellings
Notes:
1) underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.6
Source: English Housing survey, dwelling sample}

In 2022, there were 1.1 million vacant dwellings, making up 5% of the dwellings in England. Vacant dwellings are assessed at the time of the interviewer’s visit and full physical inspections of vacant dwellings are undertaken. Properties in between lets and those that are vacant for a longer period are both classified as vacant in the EHS.

Dwelling age

The age of dwellings in England varied by tenure, with private rented dwellings tending to be older. The proportion of private rented dwellings build pre 1919 was 31% compared to 20% of owner occupied dwellings and 7% of social rented sector dwellings. In contrast, 31% of social rented dwellings were aged 1945-64 compared to 12% of private rented and 17% of owner occupied dwellings, Figure 1.8 and Annex Table 1.6.

Within the social sector, housing association stock tends to be newer. The proportion of housing association dwellings built between 1991-2002 and 2002 onwards (17% and 15%) was higher than local authority dwellings (3% and 2%).

Figure 1.8: Dwelling age, by tenure, 2022

^{Base: all dwellings
Notes:
1) underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.6
Source: English Housing survey, dwelling sample}

Dwelling type

Overall, the dwelling type profile of owner occupied, private rented and social rented sector dwellings was different. Owner occupied dwellings had the highest proportion of detached houses (26%) compared to 5% in the private rented sector and 1% in the social rented sector, Figure 1.9 and Annex Table 1.6.

The opposite trend is true for low rise purpose built flats, which make up 37% of the social rented sector, higher than the private rented sector (24%) and owner occupied dwellings (7%). Local authority dwellings were more likely to be high rise purpose built flats (6%) than were housing association dwellings (3%).

Figure 1.9: Dwelling type, by tenure, 2022

^{Base: all dwellings
Notes:
1) underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.6
2) Dwelling type figures do not match live table DA1101 due to different variable used for bungalows
Source: English Housing survey, dwelling sample}

Dwelling size

In 2022, the average (mean) usable floor space of all dwellings was 97m2. Social rented homes tended to be smaller (67m2) than private rented homes (76m2). Owner occupied homes were larger (111m2) than all private and social rented homes, Figure 1.10, Annex Table 1.6.

Almost a quarter of homes in the social sector (25%) had a usable floor space of less than 50m2 compared with 6% of private rented and 3% of owner occupied homes. This reflects the predominance of flats in the social sector compared to houses and bungalows in the private sector.

Figure 1.10: Usable floor area for dwellings, by tenure, 2022

^{Base: all dwellings
Notes:
underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.6
Source: English Housing survey, dwelling sample}

Plots and outside space

The English Housing Survey records a number of details relating to the land immediately surrounding a dwelling, referred to as the dwelling’s plot. The plot may be private (exclusive access) or shared. The plot may consist of hard landscaping, soft landscaping, or a combination.  

In 2022, the majority of dwellings in England (83%) had a private plot (for the sole use of the dwelling) and 14% had a shared plot. The proportion of dwellings with no shared or private plot at all decreased from 5% in 2021 to 3% in 2022, Annex Table 1.7 and Figure 1.11.

Dwellings in London were much less likely (62%) than the rest of England (87%) to have a private plot and were more likely (28%) than all other regions to have access to a shared plot (ranging from 7% to 16%).

Figure 1.11: Presence of plot in dwellings, by dwelling type, tenure and region, 2022

^{Base: all dwellings
Notes:
1) The EHS records a number of details relating to the land immediately surrounding a dwelling, referred to as the dwelling’s plot. The plot may be private (exclusive access) or shared. The plot may consist of hard landscaping, soft landscaping, or a combination.
2) underlying data are presented in Annex Table 1.7
Source: English Housing Survey, dwelling sample}

Technical notes and glossary

For technical information regarding caveats in this report, please see the technical note.

For a detailed glossary of terms please see the glossary.