Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2011

Main Points

The main points in this report are:

Overall household change

In mid-2011 there were 2.37 million households in Scotland - an increase of around 173,000 (7.9 per cent) over the last ten years.
The number of households in Scotland has increased every year for the last ten years. However, the rate of increase has slowed substantially since the start of the economic downturn. The rate of growth slowed rapidly in the two years since 2007, and less so in the following two years. Between 2010 and 2011 the number of households increased by 10,600, a rise of 0.5 per cent. This is the lowest yearly increase in the last ten years.
The rate of growth in households has been affected by falls in new housing supply in Scotland. New housing supply (which includes new builds, refurbishments and conversions) has fallen in each year from 2008-09 to 2010-11 (Footnote 1). New starts were also down in 2010-11. The construction sector has been badly affected by the economic downturn which began in 2008 (Footnote 2, 3, 4). It is likely that other factors such as the constrained mortgage and labour markets are also having an effect on new household formation (Footnote 5).
The number of households has increased over the last year in every local authority except Clackmannanshire (a fall of 5 households), Inverclyde (a fall of 70 households) and West Dunbartonshire (a fall of 20 households). Over the last ten years, there has been an increase in the number of households in all areas apart from Inverclyde (where it fell by 0.7 per cent, 267 households). The area with the greatest increase since 2001 in percentage terms has been Aberdeenshire (an increase of 15.2 per cent, 13,800 households) though Edinburgh City has seen the largest absolute increase (17,000 households, an increase of 8.3 per cent).
Between 1991 and 2011, Scotland's population increased by around nearly four per cent (Footnote 6). The number of households has increased at a greater rate (by almost eight per cent) because the average household size is getting smaller, with more people living alone and in smaller households.

Council Tax bands

Accessible rural areas have the smallest proportion of dwellings in the lower value Council Tax bands (bands A-C).
The proportion of dwellings in the lower value Council Tax bands increases with the level of deprivation of the area. In the most deprived areas almost all dwellings (95 per cent) are in the lower value Council Tax bands, compared to just 13 per cent in the least deprived areas.

Dwelling type

There are higher proportions of flats in urban areas and in more deprived areas. In contrast, there are higher proportions of detached houses in rural areas and in less deprived areas.
The three island authority areas (Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands) have the highest percentages of detached dwellings (over 58 per cent). Glasgow City area has the highest proportion of flats (73 per cent) and the lowest proportion of detached dwellings (three per cent).

Vacant dwellings and second homes

Across Scotland, 2.8 per cent of dwellings are vacant and 1.5 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, compared to between 95 and 97 per cent in other areas). 4.8 per cent of all dwellings in these areas are vacant and 7.3 per cent are second homes. In the most deprived areas of Scotland, 4.6 per cent of all dwellings are vacant. In other areas the figures vary between 1.8 and 3.2 per cent, with the proportion of vacant dwellings generally being lower in less deprived areas.

Single adult households

Thirty eight per cent of dwellings in Scotland are entitled to a 'single adult' Council Tax discount. This category includes one adult living alone, with children, or with other people who are '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 to 28 per cent in the least deprived areas).

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