This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify households with usual residents in England and Wales by various household characteristics, including variations in tenure by household size, household family composition, multi-generational households, and household level information on the age, ethnic group, religion, employment status and occupation of household members. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.
These datasets are part of Household characteristics by tenure, England and Wales: Census 2021, a release of results from the 2021 Census for England and Wales. Figures may differ slightly in future releases because of the impact of removing rounding and applying further statistical processes.
Total counts for some household groups may not match between published tables. This is to protect the confidentiality of households' data. Household counts have been rounded to the nearest 5 and any counts below 10 were suppressed; this is signified by a 'c' in the data tables.
This dataset uses middle layer super output area (MSOA) and lower layer super output area (LSOA) geography boundaries as of 2021 and local authority district geography boundaries as of 2022.
In this dataset, the number of households in an area is broken down by different variables and categories. If you were to sum the counts of households by each variable and category, it may not sum to the total of households in that area. This is because of rounding, suppression and that some tables only include data for certain household groups.
In this dataset, variables may have different categories for different geography levels. When variables are broken down by more categories, they may not sum to the total of the higher level categories due to rounding and suppression.
Social rent is not separated into “housing association, housing co-operative, charitable trust, registered social landlord” and “council or local authority districts” because of respondent error in identifying the type of landlord. This is particularly clear in results for areas which have no local authority districts housing stock, but there are households responding as having a “council or local authority districts” landlord type. Estimates are likely to be accurate when the social rent category is combined.
The Census Quality and Methodology Information report contains important information on:
- the uses and users of the census data
- the strengths and limitations of the census data
- the quality characteristics of the census data
- the methods used to produce the census data
Quality notes can be found here
Housing quality information for Census 2021 can be found here
Household
A household is defined as one person living alone, or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and a living room, sitting room or dining area. This includes all sheltered accommodation units in an establishment (irrespective of whether there are other communal facilities) and all people living in caravans on any type of site that is their usual residence; this will include anyone who has no other usual residence elsewhere in the UK. A household must contain at least one person whose place of usual residence is at the address. A group of short-term residents living together is not classified as a household, and neither is a group of people at an address where only visitors are staying.
Usual resident
For Census 2021, a usual resident of the UK is anyone who, on Census Day, was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the UK for a period of 12 months or more, or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months.
Household reference person (HRP)
A person who serves as a reference point, mainly based on economic activity and age, to characterize a whole household. The person is not necessarily the member of the household in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented.
Tenure
Whether a household owns or rents the accommodation that it occupies. Owner-occupied accommodation can be: owned outright, which is where the household owns all of the accommodation; owned with a mortgage or loan; or part owned on a shared ownership scheme. Rented accommodation can be private rented, for example, rented through a private landlord or letting agent; social rented through a local council or housing association; or lived in rent free, which is where the household does not own the accommodation and does not pay rent to live there, for example living in a relative or friend’s property or live-in carers or nannies. This information is not available for household spaces with no usual residents.
Household size
The number of usual residents in the household.
Household family composition
Households according to the relationships between members. Single-family households are classified by the number of dependent children and family type (married, civil partnership or cohabiting couple family, or lone parent family). Other households are classified by the number of people, the number of dependent children and whether the household consists only of students or only of people aged 66 years and over.
Multi-generational households
Households where people from across more than two generations of the same family live together. This includes households with grandparents and grandchildren whether or not the intervening generation also live in the household.
Household combination of resident age
Classifies households by the ages of household members on 21 March 2021. Households could be made up of residents aged 15 years and under; residents aged 16 to 64 years; residents aged 65 years and over; or a combination of these.
Ethnic group
The ethnic group that the person completing the census feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance. Respondents could choose one out of 19 tick-box response categories, including write-in response options. For more information, see ONS's Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021 bulletin
Household combination of resident ethnic group
Classifies households by the ethnic groups household members identified with.
Religion
The religion people connect or identify with (their religious affiliation), whether or not they practice or have belief in it. This question was voluntary and includes people who identified with one of 8 tick-box response options, including 'No religion', alongside those who chose not to answer this question. For more information, see ONS's Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021 bulletin
Household combination of resident religion
Classifies households by the religious affiliation of household members who chose to answer the religion question. The classifications may include residents who did not answer the religion question.
Household combination of resident employment status
Classifies households by the employment status of household members aged 16 years and over between 15 and 21 March 2021. Households could be made up of employed residents (employee or self-employed); unemployed residents (looking for work and could start within two weeks, or waiting to start a job that had been offered and accepted); economically inactive residents (unemployed and had not looked for work between 22 February to 21 March 2021, or could not start work within two weeks); or a combination of these.
Occupation
"Classifies what people aged 16 years and over do as their main job. Their job title or details of activities they do in their job and any supervisory or management responsibilities form this classification. This information is used to code responses to an occupation using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020. It classifies people who were in employment between 15 March and 21 March 2021, by the SOC code that represents their current occupation. The lowest level of detail available is the four-digit SOC code which includes all codes in three, two and one digit SOC code levels. Occupation classifications include :
- manager, director or senior official occupations (such as Elected Representatives and Senior Police Officers)
- professional occupations (such as Doctors and Teachers)
- associate professional and technical occupations (such as Police Officers and Counsellors)
- administrative or secretarial occupations (such as Office Managers and Receptionists)
- skilled trade occupations (such as Electricians and Chefs)
- caring, leisure or other service occupations (such as Teaching Assistants and Home Carers)
- sales and customer service occupations (such as Cashiers and Shopkeepers)
- process, plant and machine operatives (such as Bus Drivers and Scaffolders)
- elementary occupations (such as Postal Workers and Waiters)"
