Analysis of Religion in the 2001 Census

ANALYSIS OF RELIGION IN THE 2001 CENSUS: Summary Report

2. HOUSING

This chapter presents information on people living in households. A household is defined as:

• one person living alone, or
• a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address with common housekeeping - sharing either a living room or sitting room, or at least one meal a day.

Persons living in communal establishments are excluded from the analyses unless otherwise stated. A communal establishment is defined as an establishment providing managed residential accommodation (i.e. full-time or part-time supervision of the accommodation). Examples include prisons, large hospitals and hotels.

Accommodation Type

Over two-thirds (71%) of people in households in Scotland live in a house or bungalow. The remaining 29% of people live in a flat, maisonette or apartment. There are considerable variations across the different religion groups, in terms of the proportions living in houses and those living in flats. It should be noted that the type of housing people stay in will be related to where they live; flats will be more common in urban areas as opposed to rural areas.

Table 2.1: Type of housing by current religion of All People in Households in Unshared Accommodation

Row percentages

	House or Bungalow	Flat, Maisonette or apartment	Base
Church of Scotland	76	23	2,111,849
Roman Catholic	66	34	791,696
Other Christian	74	26	333,325
Buddhist	57	43	6,364
Hindu	55	44	5,299
Jewish	62	38	6,187
Muslim	53	47	42,005
Sikh	69	31	6,530
Another Religion	50	50	25,779
No religion	67	33	1,378,308
Not Answered	66	34	265,924
All Religion Groups	71	29	4,973,266

Note: Row percentages may not sum to 100 as a small percentage of people responded that they lived in a caravan or other mobile/temporary structure.

People responding that they have Another Religion are least likely to live in a house (50%). This is followed by Muslims and Hindus with 53% and 55% respectively living in a house/bungalow. This may be partly explained by the high proportion of Muslims and Hindus living in urban areas.

Household Tenure

Table 2.2 presents data on household ownership rates across the different religion groups. Around two-thirds of people aged 16 years and over in Scotland live in owner occupied property.

Of all religion groups, Sikhs and Jewish people are most likely to own their home; over three-quarters of those aged 16 plus in each group did so.

The lowest home ownership rates are experienced by Hindus (59%), Buddhists (60%) and those from Another Religion group (56%).

There are also differences in household tenure across age groups. As expected, younger people are less likely to own their home. However, the level of home ownership among 16-29 year olds varies considerably across religions. Around 80% of Sikhs aged 16-29 own their home, while the comparable figure for Hindus and Buddhists is 40% and 43% respectively.

Table 2.2: Household tenure by current religion of All People in Households aged 16 years and over

Column percentages

	All People	Church of Scotland	Roman Catholic	Other Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Another Religion	No religion	Not Answered
16-29 years
Owned	60	67	59	53	43	40	62	62	80	45	55	56
Rented / Living rent free	40	33	41	47	57	60	38	38	20	55	45	44
30-49 years
Owned	71	74	67	71	62	61	82	65	84	66	70	66
Rented / Living rent free	29	26	33	29	38	39	18	35	16	34	30	34
50-pensionable age
Owned	74	75	65	78	72	91	87	77	84	75	76	69
Rented / Living rent free	26	25	35	22	28	9	13	23	16	25	24	31
Pensionable age-74 years
Owned	67	69	58	75	72	86	83	76	78	71	66	60
Rented / Living rent free	33	31	42	25	28	14	17	24	22	29	34	40
75 years +
Owned	55	56	47	63	49	67	76	72	71	57	57	52
Rented / Living rent free	45	44	53	37	51	33	24	28	29	43	43	48
All Ages (16+)
Owned	67	70	62	69	60	59	79	66	82	56	66	62
Rented / Living rent free	33	30	38	31	40	41	21	34	18	44	34	38
Base	4,007,466	1,794,975	640,262	286,323	5,753	4,402	5,366	28,804	4,787	23,442	1,041,093	172,259

Notes:
1. Owned includes those responding 'owned outright', 'owns with the help of a mortgage or loan', or 'shared ownership'.
2. It is possible that form-fillers on housing benefit may have responded 'living rent free' in response to the Census question on tenure. As a result, the rented and living rent free categories are combined.

Rented Accommodation ⁶

Hindus are least likely to rent in the public sector, with only 16% renting from the Council, Scottish Homes or Housing Associations.

In contrast, people from Christian religions are most likely to rent in the public sector: 86% of Roman Catholics and 81% of people from the Church of Scotland rent in this sector.

Chart 2.1: Rented accommodation by current religion of All People in Rented Accommodation

Percentages

G11

Note: Social rented accommodation includes those homes that are rented from the Council (or Scottish Homes), Registered Social Landlords and Housing Associations. Private rented accommodation includes those homes that are rented from a private landlord or letting agency, employer of a household member, relatives or friends, and any others.

Further information on the landlord of those living in rented accommodation can be found in Table 2.3.

Not surprisingly, around two-thirds (66%) of Hindus rent from a private landlord or letting agency. As mentioned before, this group are least likely to rent from a public landlord; only 11% of Hindus rent from the council and 5% rent from a housing association or similar.

Around two-thirds of Roman Catholics and people from the Church of Scotland rent their home from the council.

Only a small proportion of people rent their accommodation from family or friends. Jews (7%), Muslims (6%), Sikhs (6%) and those from other religions (6%) have the highest proportion of people privately renting from family or friends.

Table 2.3: Landlord by current religion of All People in Rented Accommodation

Row percentages

	Social Rented:	Social Rented:	Private Rented:	Private Rented:	Private Rented:	Private Rented:
	Council (or Scottish Homes)	Housing association charitable trust or similar	Private landlord or letting agency	Employer of a household member	Relative or friend of a household member	Other	Base
Church of Scotland	67	14	12	3	3	1	626,029
Roman Catholic	68	18	11	1	2	1	295,268
Other Christian	45	13	28	6	4	4	103,711
Buddhist	28	13	46	3	5	5	2,576
Hindu	11	5	66	6	3	9	2,135
Jewish	30	19	39	2	7	3	1,242
Muslim	35	16	38	2	6	4	14,638
Sikh	36	16	38	2	6	2	1,171
Another Religion	27	10	53	2	6	3	11,058
No religion	60	15	20	2	3	1	499,415
Not Answered	65	17	14	1	2	1	116,660
All Religion Groups	63	15	16	2	3	1	1,673,903

Communal Establishments ⁷

Table 2.4: People living in communal establishments by current religion - All People
Percentages

	% of all people living in medical and care establishments	% of all people living in other types of communal establishments	% of all people living in communal establishments	Base
Church of Scotland	1.2	0.4	1.6	2,146,251
Roman Catholic	0.8	0.7	1.5	803,732
Other Christian	1.2	2.0	3.2	344,562
Buddhist	0.6	6.0	6.5	6,830
Hindu	0.4	4.3	4.6	5,564
Jewish	2.5	1.5	4.0	6,448
Muslim	0.1	1.0	1.0	42,557
Sikh	0.2	0.3	0.5	6,572
Another Religion	0.3	3.8	4.2	26,974
No religion	0.3	0.8	1.1	1,394,460
Not Answered	2.7	1.6	4.3	278,061
All Religion Groups	0.9	0.8	1.7	5,062,011

Buddhists have the highest proportion of people living in communal establishments (6.5%). In comparison, only 0.5% of Sikhs live in communal establishments.

The Jewish group has the highest proportion of people living in medical and care establishments at 2.5%. This is followed by people from the Church of Scotland and Other Christians at 1.2% respectively for each group. The older age profiles of these groups may explain the high proportions in such communal establishments.

Occupancy Rating

The occupancy rating relates the actual number of rooms in a household to the number of rooms required by the household. It is calculated by taking into account the number of people in the household, their ages and their relationship. The occupancy rating highlights households with excess rooms and those with too few rooms (over crowding).

An occupancy rating equal to 0 indicates that the actual number of rooms is equal to the standard required. A rating greater than 0 indicates that there are more rooms than the minimum standard required. However, a rating less than 0 indicates there are fewer rooms than are required and thus the home is over-crowded.

Chart 2.2: Occupancy Rating by current religion of Household Reference Person (HRP) - All HRPs

Percentages

Note: The criteria for selecting the HRP is based on economic activity, then age, then order on the form.

Chart 2.2 shows that Muslim households have the highest incidence of households living below the occupancy rating standard, i.e. overcrowded according to this standard (33%). Sikh households have the second highest proportion at 24%.

Jewish households and Other Christian households are least likely to be living below the occupancy rating standard (9% for both groups).