Increase in Number of Households in Scotland

14 May 2009

The number of households in Scotland is continuing to increase, the Registrar General announced today. The Registrar General was commenting following the publication of Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2008.

Duncan Macniven, Registrar General for Scotland, said:

"The number of households in Scotland is still increasing. This is due partly to a small increase in population, but mainly to changes in household structure, with more people living alone. The rate of growth has slowed in the past year. Between 2007 and 2008, the number of households increased less than in any of the last five years."

The report’s main findings are:

Overall household change

The number of households in Scotland has been increasing steadily, by between 11,000 and 23,000 each year since 1991. Over the last year, there has been an increase of 17,500 households (0.8 per cent).
The rate of growth has slowed in the past year: between 2007 and 2008, the increase in the number of households was lower than in any other year for the last five years.
The number of households has been increasing in every council area, except Inverclyde (where it remained the same between 2003 and 2008 and fell slightly in 2007-08). The areas with the greatest increases over the last five years have been in Highland (8.5 per cent) and Aberdeenshire (8.3 per cent).

One-adult households

Household structure is changing, with more people living alone. There has been a six per cent increase in the number of adults living alone in Scotland over the last five years.
38 per cent of dwellings in Scotland are entitled to a Council Tax discount as there is only one adult living there (either alone or with children). There are more one-adult households in urban areas (42 per cent in large urban areas, compared to 29 per cent in remote rural areas) and in deprived areas (28 per cent in the least deprived areas, compared to 52 per cent in the most deprived areas).

Vacant dwellings and second homes

Across Scotland as a whole, 2.8 per cent of dwellings are vacant and 1.4 per cent are second homes, though there is wide variation across the country.
Remote rural areas have the lowest percentage of dwellings which are occupied (88 per cent), with higher percentages of vacant dwellings (four per cent of all dwellings in these areas) and second homes (seven per cent).
The most deprived areas have the highest percentage of dwellings which are vacant (six per cent).