Home ownership and unpaid care, England and Wales, 2011

• On the day of the 2011 Census, there were approximately 5.6 million unpaid carers aged 18 years and over (not including those living in communal establishments or non-usual residents) in England and Wales, this equates to 13.0% of the corresponding population.

• Without controlling for any socio-demographic factors, unpaid carers were 45.5% more likely to own their own home than non-carers, this difference was statistically significant.

• When controlling for all chosen socio-demographic factors (sex, ethnicity, age, National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC), and household composition), unpaid carers were 3.5% less likely to own their own home than non-carers, this difference was statistically significant.

• When controlling for sex, ethnicity, age and NS-SEC, unpaid carers were more likely to own their own home than non-carers; only the addition of household composition reversed the effect whereby unpaid carers became less likely to own their own home than non-carers.

• Focusing on hours of unpaid care, without controlling for any socio-demographic factors, individuals providing 20 to 49 and 50 or more hours of unpaid care per week were 52.0% and 57.4% less likely (respectively) to own a home compared with those providing 1 to 19 hours of unpaid care per week, this difference was statistically significant.

• When controlling for all chosen socio-demographic factors, unpaid carers who provided between 20 and 49 hours of care per week, and those who provided 50 or more hours of care per week were 47.1% and 62.5% less likely (respectively) to own their own home than those who provided between 1 to 19 hours of unpaid care; these findings were statistically significant.

Dataset | Released 24 August 2022
Logistic regression models investigating the relationship between unpaid carer status, hours of unpaid care provided per week and home ownership using 2011 Census data.

The analysis presented has been produced and written in collaboration with the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE).

Study population

For the care status regression models, the study population consisted of usual residents who:

• were aged 18 years and over on Census Day 2011

• lived in England or Wales

• did not live in a communal establishment

This amounts to approximately 43.2 million individuals.

For the care hours regression models, the study population consisted of people who:

• were aged 18 and over on Census Day 2011

• lived in England or Wales

• did not live in a communal establishment

• provided one or more hours of unpaid care per week

This amounts to approximately 5.6 million individuals.

Variables

All individual and household level socio-demographic characteristics studied came from the 2011 Census, they were:

• sex

• ethnic group

• age

• National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC)

• household composition

Percentages

The percentages reported in Section 1: Main points are calculated from odds ratios (OR). An OR is a measure of association between a characteristic and an outcome. ORs were calculated using the estimates (log odds) in our accompanying dataset. The odds ratio is calculated by exponentiating the log odds:

Statistical significance

The term "statistically significant" refers to statistically significant changes or differences. A result is said to be statistically significant if it is likely not caused by chance or the variable nature of the samples. A defined threshold can help us test for change. A 5.0 % standard has been used for this release. The observed difference is statistically significant at the 5.0% level if there is less than a 1 in 20 chance of the observed difference being calculated by chance if there is actually no underlying difference. You can find out more about statistical uncertainty in our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys page.

Because census data have been used in this release, we have a large study population. This means we may find statistical significance with very small effects.

Tenure

An individual was classified as owning a home when, on the day of Census 2011 they:

• owned a home outright

• owned a home with a mortgage or loan

• owned a home under shared ownership (part owned and part rented)

An individual was classified as not a homeowner when, on the day of Census 2011 they were:

• social renting

• private renting

• living rent free