DDS Entity Definition: R_HOUS_DENSITY_GEN

Name:

Percentage of Households with more than one person per room

Identifier:

R_HOUS_DENSITY_GEN

Type:

Rate (R)

Definition:

HOUS_DENSITY_GEN:over_1 * 100.0 / HOUSEHOLDS:now

Display as:

Continuous time series

Text:

These figures record, for most years, how many households had less than one room per person (not counting bathrooms and corridors). How good a measure of living conditions is this?

The figures for 1931 are for 'families', not households, and the total number of families excludes those with more than five rooms. The figures seem to show a very clear geographical pattern, with the worst conditions concentrated into both urban and rural parts of the north-east of England. However, this pattern may be a result of the way the census measured crowding, by counting numbers of rooms rather than floorspace. To some extent housing in the north-east resembled that in Scotland, with fewer but larger rooms, while in the north-west of England people lived in terraced houses with lots of small rooms. There was also serious over-crowding in inner London: the twenty worst districts include Tower Hamlets, Islington and Southwark.

In 1931, three districts had over half their households living at over one person per room, but by 1951 only one had over a third. The worst districts were still concentrated in the north-east, but slum clearance schemes in some urban areas meant that the rural west midlands now appear as a problem area. In the 1950s and 1960s very active slum clearance programmes, planned construction of 'overspill' estates and new towns, and home-owning middle class families being able to afford better homes all led to great improvements: by 1971, only 6% of households in England and Wales had less than one room per person, compared to 21% in 1931 and 16% in 1951. The concentration of bad conditions in the north-east and London remained, although the north-east then saw remarkable improvement in its relative position during the 1970s.

By 1991, only 2% of households had less than one room per person, and the 2001 census used a new measure of over-crowding. This 'occupancy rating' relates the actual number of rooms to the number of rooms 'required' by the members of the household, based on their relationships and ages. There is some comparability: a household consisting of a husband and wife, a son and a daughter would require five rooms, and we concentrate on households with an 'occupancy rating' of -1 or less. These households were clearly concentrated into the main cities, but the four 'worst' districts were affluent parts of London: the City, Camden, Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea. As a single person in a bedsit with separate bathroom and kitchen counts as over-crowded, the new standard may simply be too demanding.

Rate "R_HOUS_DENSITY_GEN" is contained within:

Themes:

Entity ID	Entity Name
T_HOUS	Housing

---

Rate "R_HOUS_DENSITY_GEN" contains no lower-level entities.