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Number of households in houses in multiple occupation (HMO) by type of occupancy rating (bedrooms)

Important information:

Improvements to the Census address frame allowed us to accurately list multiple household spaces within the same building. This means the data are more often counted as distinct households within separate dwellings reflecting living arrangements.

Read more about this quality notice.

Summary

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify households in England and Wales by number that are HMOs by occupancy rating (bedrooms). The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Variable and dataset information

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

  • country - for example, Wales
  • region - for example, London
  • local authority - for example, Cornwall
  • health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
  • statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Households of multiple occupancy (HMO)

A dwelling where unrelated tenants rent their home from a private landlord is a HMO, if both of the following apply:

* at least three unrelated individuals live there, forming more than one household

* toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities are shared with other tenants

A small HMO is shared by 3 or 4 unrelated tenants. A large HMO is shared by 5 or more unrelated tenants.

Occupancy rating for bedrooms

Whether a household's accommodation is overcrowded, ideally occupied or under-occupied. This is calculated by comparing the number of bedrooms the household requires to the number of available bedrooms.

The number of bedrooms the household requires is calculated according to the Bedroom Standard, where the following should have their own bedroom:

1. adult couple

2. any remaining adult (aged 21 years or over)

3. two males (aged 10 to 20 years)

4. one male (aged 10 to 20 years) and one male (aged 9 years or under), if there are an odd number of males aged 10-20

5. one male aged 10-20 if there are no males aged 0-9 to pair with him.

6. repeat steps 3-5 for females

7. two children (aged 9 years or under) regardless of sex

8. any remaining child (aged 9 years or under)

An occupancy rating of:

* -1 or less implies that a household’s accommodation has fewer bedrooms than required (overcrowded)

* +1 or more implies that a household’s accommodation has more bedrooms than required (under-occupied)

* 0 suggests that a household’s accommodation has an ideal number of bedrooms

Variables

Population type
All households
Area type
Lower tier local authorities
Coverage
England and Wales
Households of multiple occupancy (HMO)
3 Categories
  • Is a small HMO
  • Is a large HMO
  • Does not apply
Occupancy rating for bedrooms
5 Categories
  • Occupancy rating of bedrooms: +2 or more
  • Occupancy rating of bedrooms: +1
  • Occupancy rating of bedrooms: 0
  • Occupancy rating of bedrooms: -1 or less
  • Does not apply

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Protecting personal data

Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control.

In Census 2021, we:

  • swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area (very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority)
  • added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five – this might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation

Read more in Section 5 of our article Design for Census 2021.

Version history

Release date Reason for update
Version superseded
Original release

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