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Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2008

3. Results

3.1 Number of households and dwellings

Table 1 shows the number of households in each local authority area in Scotland from 1991 to 2008, and Table 2 shows the number of dwellings.

A ’dwelling’ refers to the accommodation itself, for example a house or a flat. A ‘household’ refers to the people living together in that dwelling. The number of households will be smaller than the number of dwellings, as some dwellings are vacant, or second homes. Some further adjustments are made to the figures on households – Section 4 gives more information, and definitions.

These tables show the following trends:

3.2 Characteristics of dwellings

Tables 3 to 6 show the number of dwellings by Council Tax band, type of dwelling (flat, terraced, semi-detached or detached), number of rooms per dwelling, and density of housing.

These figures are summarised by urban/rural classification in Table 3 (according to the Scottish Government 6-fold urban/rural classification), by level of deprivation in Table 4 (according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation), and by local authority area in Table 5. Strategic Development Planning Authorities (SDPAs) are newly-formed planning authorities which cover the four largest city regions around Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Summary information is available for each SDPA area and for Scotland’s two National Parks in Table 6. A description of the SDPA areas and National Parks, and the areas they cover, is given in Sections 4.6 and 4.7. Background information on the population by age group is included in Tables 3, 4 and 6.

These tables highlight the following trends:

Council Tax band

Type of property

Figure 1: Dwelling types, by urban-rural classification, 2008

Figure 1: Dwelling types, by urban-rural classification, 2008

Figure 2: Dwelling types, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2008

Figure 2: Dwelling types, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2008

Density of housing

3.3 Characteristics of households

Tables 7 to 10 show the percentage of dwellings which are occupied, vacant or second homes. They include the percentage of dwellings entitled to a Council Tax discount because they are occupied by one adult (living alone or with children, or with other adults who are ‘disregarded’ for Council Tax purposes). They also show the percentage of dwellings which are occupied but exempt from paying Council Tax, such as households entirely occupied by students, or armed forces accommodation.

These figures are summarised by urban/rural classification in Table 7, by level of deprivation in Table 8 and by local authority area in Table 9. Summary information is available for each Strategic Development Planning Authority (SDPA) area and for Scotland’s two National Parks in Table 10.

These tables highlight the following trends:

Vacant dwellings and second homes

Figure 3: Vacant dwellings and second homes, by urban-rural classification, 2008

Figure 3: Vacant dwellings and second homes, by urban-rural classification, 2008

Figure 4: Vacant dwellings and second homes, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2008

Figure 4: Vacant dwellings and second homes, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2008

Household type

Figure 5: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount, by urban-rural classification, 2008

Figure 5: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount, by urban-rural classification, 2008

Figure 6: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount, by Scottish Index Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2008

Figure 6: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount, by Scottish Index Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2008

3.4 Variation within local authority areas

Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics and data zones

There can be a great deal of variation in household characteristics within a local authority area. The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics (SNS) website (www.sns.gov.uk) contains statistics for each ‘data zone’ in Scotland, which is a standard geography used for a range of statistics. The average data zone contains around 750 people, which is small enough to provide quite detailed local information, and can be aggregated to different areas of interest. The information summarised in this publication is available at data zone level, from the SNS website. This includes the number of dwellings by Council Tax band, type of dwelling, number of rooms per dwelling, density of housing, and the percentage of dwellings which are occupied, vacant, second homes, or are entitled to a ‘single adult’ Council Tax discount, or an ‘occupied exemption’. The SNS website allows users to view tables or maps for individual areas, or to download all the data in order to analyse it further.

Maps 3 and 4 illustrate the types of information that can be produced using the SNS website.

Map 3 shows the percentage of dwellings which are second homes for each data zone in Scotland. The map shows that there are wide variations in the proportions of second homes within many local authority areas, such as Highland, and that there are relatively high numbers of second homes in remote rural areas.

Map 4 shows the percentage of dwellings with ‘occupied exemptions’, in Dundee City. This gives an illustration of one of two main types of dwellings which are occupied but exempt from paying Council Tax – the area in the centre of Dundee contains relatively high numbers of all-student households.

Maps 3 and 4 provide useful illustrations of the data, but it is not possible to include data zone maps for every part of Scotland within this publication (though users can produce their own maps at www.sns.gov.uk). An alternative way of illustrating the variation within a local authority area is through the use of boxplots.

Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 use boxplots to illustrate the variation within each local authority area. Boxplots show the middle ranked data zone, and they also show the level of variation – the larger the box, the more variation there is within that local authority area. An illustration of a boxplot is shown below.

Example of a boxplot (the percentage of dwellings which are vacant, in each data zone in Moray)

Example of a boxplot (the percentage of dwellings which are vacant, in each data zone in Moray)

The example given above shows the percentage of dwellings which are vacant in each data zone in Moray (from Figure 7). This shows that in half the data zones in Moray, up to three per cent of dwellings are vacant, but that the proportion varies across the local authority area. In the five per cent of data zones with the lowest figures, around one per cent of dwellings are vacant, while in the five per cent with the highest figures, more than eight per cent of dwellings are vacant.

Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 are boxplots, showing the percentage of dwellings in each council area which are vacant, are second homes, have ‘single adult’ discounts, or ‘occupied exemptions’. These charts illustrate a number of trends, and confirm some of the trends seen in the previous tables:

3.5 Changes in household size and type

Table 11 and Figure 11 show information on changes in household size and type, taken from the Scottish Household Survey. These show that the average household size is getting smaller, with more people living alone and in smaller households. Since 2002, the number of households containing just one adult has increased by six per cent, and the number of two adult households increased by 10 per cent.

In contrast, the number of larger households (such as two or more adults with children), has decreased. This change in household size and type has led to a five per cent increase in the number of households in Scotland, more than double the increase in the population.

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