Housing & households

A household is defined as one person living alone, or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address with common housekeeping – that is, sharing either a living room or sitting room or at least one meal a day. The assumptions underlying national household and population projections are based on demographic trends. They are not forecasts as, for example, they do not attempt to predict the impact of future Government policies, changing economic circumstances or other factors that might influence household growth. The projections show the household numbers that would result if the assumptions based in previous demographic trends in the population and rates of household formation were to be realised in practice.

The section below shows council tax statistics published by the Valuation Office Agency. The VOA is an Executive Agency of HM Revenue and Customs, and has responsibility, amongst other things, for providing Council Tax bands for dwellings in England and Wales and placing each dwelling into one of the valuation bands on the basis of its value.

Tenure provides information about whether a household rents or owns the accommodation that it occupies and, if rented, combines this with information about the type of landlord who owns or manages the accommodation.