previous | contents | next

Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2009

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 2009 and Table 2 shows the number of dwellings from 2001 to 2009.

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 Plan (SDP) areas are planning authorities which cover the four largest city regions around Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Summary information is available for each SDP area and for Scotland’s two National Parks in Table 6. Background information on the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation is given in Sections 4.4 and 4.5.

A description of the SDP 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, 2009

Figure 1: Dwelling types by urban-rural classification, 2009

Figure 2: Dwelling types by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2009

Figure 2: Dwelling types by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, 2009

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 Plan (SDP) 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, September 2009

Figure 3: Vacant dwellings and second homes by urban-rural classification, September 2009

Figure 4: Vacant dwellings and second homes by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, September 2009

Figure 4: Vacant dwellings and second homes by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, September 2009

Single adult households

Figure 5: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount by urban-rural classification, September 2009

Figure 5: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount by urban-rural classification, September 2009

Figure 6: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, September 2009

Figure 6: Percentage of dwellings entitled to a ‘single adult’ discount by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile, September 2009

‘Occupied exemptions’

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. When first created in 2004, the average data zone was designed to contain 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, 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 2, 3, 4 and 5 illustrate the types of maps that can be produced to show information at data zone level.

Map 2 shows the percentage of dwellings in each data zone which are vacant. This shows the considerable local variations in the percentages of vacant dwellings in every local authority area. The map also highlights the relatively high percentage of vacant dwellings in remote rural parts of local authorities such as Highland - these cannot be identified by looking at Map 1, which shows figures for each local authority area as a whole. The inset map shows that in general, there are lower percentages of vacant dwellings in much of the Central Belt. However, there are still some data zones with high percentages of vacant dwellings and these might be caused by new builds, long term empty properties or by vacant properties awaiting demolition. There are some data zones in urban areas which contain high concentrations of vacant dwellings. Due to the small land area of data zones in some areas it may not be possible to see these concentrations on the maps. It is possible for users to produce more focused maps using the SNS website.

Map 3 shows the percentage of dwellings in each data zone which are flats. Urban areas and areas closer to the ‘Central Belt’ of Scotland tend to have higher proportions of flats. The inset map shows that there are local area variations in the percentages of flats and these are often in town centres or in cities. In general, remote rural areas have low percentages of flats.

Map 4 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 5 shows the percentage of dwellings with ‘occupied exemptions’ in North East Fife and Dundee City. This gives an illustration of the two main types of dwellings which are occupied but exempt from paying Council Tax. The area in the centres of Dundee and the whole of St Andrews contain relatively high numbers of all-student households. There are also areas of armed forces accommodation at Leuchars in Fife.

Maps 2, 3, 4 and 5 provide useful illustrations of the data, but it is not possible to include detailed 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. These show the percentage of dwellings in each council area which are vacant, are second homes, have ‘single adult’ discounts, or are classed as ‘occupied exemptions’. 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 North Ayrshire)

Example of a boxplot

The example given above shows the percentage of dwellings which are vacant in each data zone in North Ayrshire (from Figure 7). This shows that in half the data zones in North Ayrshire, up to two 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, less than one per cent of all dwellings are vacant. In the five per cent of data zones with the highest figures, more than seven per cent of dwellings are vacant.

Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 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. Between 2003 and 2008, the number of households containing just one adult has increased by seven per cent and the number of two adult households also increased by seven per cent. There has been an overall increase in the number of households containing one adult with children since 1991, although the number of households of this type has declined in recent years. There has been an overall decline in the number of households containing two or more adults with children since 1991. The changes in household composition have contributed to a five per cent increase in the number of households in Scotland between 2003 and 2008. This is more than double the increase in the population over this time.

previous | contents | next