13/01/2023 - Permalink

Census 2021 data: housing, and car ownership

Related topics: Community / Corporate / Housing

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published the next phase of Census 2021 topic summaries for England and Wales, focusing on information relating to housing, and car ownership.

This release includes 11 tables of data, generally available down to small areas called Census Output Areas (COA).

What’s included in the Census 2021 housing results?

ONS have also published three bulletins on housing, communal establishment residents and people with second addresses. These provide information from Census 2021 about:

  • how many households owned their accommodation compared with those who rent?
  • how many households used renewable energy for their central heating across England and Wales?
  • did more households have use of a car or van than in 2011?
  • how many people were staying in communal establishments on Census Day?
  • how many people were staying in care homes?
  • what were the most common types of second addresses? 

Key headlines – housing

  • The 2021 Census found 90.3% of households (126,000) in Shropshire lived in a house or bungalow, compared to only 77.4% nationally.
  • Only, 8.9% of households (12,400) lived in a flat, maisonette or apartment and 0.8% (1,200) lived in a caravan, or other mobile or temporary structure.
  • In 2021, 69.5%, of households (97,000) owned outright or with a mortgage the accommodation they lived in, 30.5% (42,500) rented their accommodation and 0.1% of households (100) lived rent free.
  • Across Shropshire, 1.8% of households (2,500) had fewer bedrooms than required, compared with 2.3% (2,900) in 2011.
  • Almost all households reported that they had central heating in 2021 (98.6%, 138,000); of these, 2.1% (2,900) used at least one renewable energy source compared to 0.9% in England.

Car ownership

  • In 2021, 13.8% (19,300) of households had no cars or vans (down from 15.8% (20,500) in 2011).

Second address

  • Overall, 16,200 usual residents in Shropshire (5% of the population) reported staying at a second address for more than 30 days a year.
  • The percentage of people who used a second address has risen very slightly since 2011, when it was 4.9% (15,000).
  • Overall, 13,400 of usual residents (4.2%) used a second address in the UK and 2,800 usual residents (0.9%) used a second address outside the UK.
  • The most common types of second address were another parent or guardian’s address (used by 6,000 people, 1.85% of all usual residents) and holiday homes (2,800, 0.87%).
  • With this data it is important to consider the impacts of the pandemic; for instance students may have been more likely to be residing at their parental or guardian’s address for the whole academic year with no use of a second term-time address.

Communal establishments

  • In 2021, there were 7,300 communal establishment residents in Shropshire (2.3% of the usual resident population).
  • The number of those living in communal establishments has gone down slightly by 600 since 2011 (when 7,900 lived in communal establishments).
  • In total, 39.5% of communal establishment residents were female and 60.5% were male. Of those communal establishments residents who were aged 65 and over 9% (600) were male and 23% (1,600) were female.
  • Almost half (46.3%) of communal establishment residents were aged 16 to 24 years, and a further 16.3% were aged 85 years and over.
  • 8% (2,400) of communal establishment residents lived in care homes, 28.2% (2,100) lived in a defence establishment and 21% (1,500) lived in education establishments.

Melanie Holland, Shropshire Council’s housing strategy and development manager, said:-

“The 2021 Census provides data on housing which is really important, as it allows the council to have a greater understanding of the housing market in terms of tenure, house type, level of occupancy and numbers of second homes. Moreover, the 2021 Census data can be used alongside other housing research to enable the council to develop and implement strategic policy to meet housing needs of Shropshire residents.”

Dean Carroll, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for growth, regeneration and housing, added:-

“We know how much the housing market in Shropshire has changed over the last few years and the Census provides us with essential data which we can use to better understand the housing needs of our communities.”

For further information, and to find out more about the Census 2021 results, people can visit the ONS website.

Further information and analysis for Shropshire will be added to the Shropshire Council 2021 Census webpages, as further results become available.

Please note, these results have been rounded to the nearest 100.