News Release
Scotland sees rise in the number of households
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19 May 2011 |
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The number of households in Scotland continues to increase, according to the publication today of ‘Estimates of households and dwellings in Scotland, 2010’.
Commenting on the publication, Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven 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 and in smaller households. The rate of growth has slowed since 2007. The increase from 2009 to 2010 was the lowest in the past five years.
The report’s main findings are:
Number of households
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The number of households in Scotland has been increasing by an average of about 18,000 per year since 2001. In mid-2010 there were 2.36 million households in Scotland, 12,100 more than in mid-2009; and
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The rate of growth has slowed since 2007. Between 2009 and 2010, the increase in the number of households was the lowest in the past five years.
Local authority figures
- The number of households has increased since 2009 in every council area, except Inverclyde where it fell by 93 households (0.3 per cent). Since 2005, there has been an increase in the number of households in all areas apart from Inverclyde. The area with the greatest increase over the past five years has been East Lothian where there was a rise of eight per cent.
Household type
- Household structure in Scotland is changing, with more people living alone and in smaller households. There has been a three per cent increase in the number of adults living alone between 2004 and 2009 and an 11 per cent increase in the number of two-adult households; and
- Thirty eight per cent of dwellings in Scotland are entitled to a Council Tax discount because there is only one adult living there (either alone, with children or with people ‘disregarded’ for Council Tax purposes). The proportion of dwellings entitled to a single adult discount is higher in urban areas (42 per cent in large urban areas, compared to 29 per cent in rural areas) and in deprived areas (52 per cent in the most deprived areas, compared with 28 per cent in the least deprived areas).
Vacant dwellings and second homes
- 2.8 per cent of dwellings in Scotland 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). In these areas, 4.6 per cent of all dwellings are vacant and 7.4 per cent are second homes; and
- In the most deprived areas of Scotland, 4.5 per cent of all dwellings are vacant.
The full publication Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2010 is available on this website.
