Scottish Household Survey 2021 - telephone survey: key findings

1. Housing

Note that the results for 2020 and 2021 are not directly comparable to SHS results from previous years due to the move to telephone / video interviewing due to COVID-19, which has also impacted on the profile of the achieved sample in these years.

Also note that this change in methodology for 2020 and 2021 has required a change to the weighting methodology. For the results presented on housing this includes a calibration to housing tenure as at 2019, in which the proportions of total rented and total owner occupier households have been adjusted to match the 2019 estimates. One consequence of this is that any results presented on the overall proportions of households by tenure do not represent any updates to these figures since 2019, and therefore cannot be used as any meaningful estimates of the total number of households by tenure in either 2020 or 2021. In addition, some caution is needed in using any cross-tenure 'all household' figures presented for these years, given that these are also affected by the tenure composition being calibrated to 2019.

Further information on these changes is set out in the 2020 and 2021 methodology reports.

The summary results presented in this section focus on describing a high level overview of some the key differences in characteristics of households between each tenure category. These within-tenure findings are less likely to have been affected by the methodology changes as outlined above.

The full set of housing tables, presenting results across a range of housing related questions, are provided in the Excel supporting documents. The caveats as set out above should be considered when interpreting any findings from these.

Dwelling type and area deprivation of households by tenure

In 2021, the majority of owner occupied properties (80%) were houses, the majority of private rented properties (69%) were flats, and social rented properties were split more evenly into 46% houses and 54% flats (Table 1.7).

46% of social rented households were in the 20% most deprived Scottish Index of Multipe Deprivation (SIMD) areas, compared to only 2% in the 20% least deprived areas (Table 1.8). This compares to 25% of owner occupied households being in the 20% least deprived areas, and 12% in the 20% most deprived areas. Private rented sector households were distributed more evenly, with 21% to 22% across all deprivation quintiles, except for 16% in the 20% least deprived areas.

Length of time at address by tenure

Owner occupiers tended to have lived at their current address the longest, with 53% of adults having lived there for eleven years or more (Table 1.26), whilst 32% of private rented sector adults had lived at their address for less than a year.

Ethnicity of adults by tenure

48% of adults in private rented households reported their ethnicity as 'White: Scottish' (Table 1.24), which is lower than for owner occupied (74%) and social rented households (83%).

Also among adults in private rented households, 19% reported their ethnicity as 'White: Other' (i.e. not 'White: Scottish', 'White: Other British', or 'White: Polish'), compared to 4% for owner occupied households and 3% for social rented households. Whilst 5% reported their ethnicity as Asian, higher than for owner occupied (1%) and social rented (1%) households, and 4% reported their ethnicity as another minority ethnic group, higher than for owner occupied households (1%).

Economic status of adults by tenure

60% of adults in social rented households were not in employment (Table 1.25). An estimated 24% were permanently retired from work, 15% were permanently sick or disabled (higher than those in all other tenures), 5% were at school or in further or higher education, 8% were unemployed and seeking work, and 6% were looking after the home or family.

49% of adults in private rented households were employed full time, and 14% were in further or higher education, which is a figure higher than for other tenures.

Satisfaction with housing by tenure

Owner occupied households (96%) were more likely to be satisfied with their housing than social rented households (83%) or private rented households (81%) (Table 1.40).