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Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2012

Main Points

Overall household change

In mid-2012, there were 2.39 million households in Scotland - an increase of around 175,000 (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. Over the last year, the number of households increased by 10,778 (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 has fallen in each year from 2008-09 to 2011-12¹. The construction sector has been badly affected by the economic downturn which began in 2008^2,3,4. It is likely that other factors such as the constrained mortgage and labour markets are also having an effect on new household formation.
Over the last few decades, there have been increases in the numbers of smaller households (those containing just one or two adults, or one adult with children), and decreases in the number of larger households (those containing three or more adults, or two or more adults with children). This has led to increases in the overall number of households. However, over the last few years, these trends have slowed down, or even reversed (for example, the number of households with three or more adults was falling slowly but is now increasing).
The population of Scotland increased by five per cent between 2001 and 2011⁵. The changes in household composition have led to a greater increase in the number of households over the same period (eight per cent).
The number of households has increased over the last year in every local authority except Inverclyde (a fall of 42 households) and West Dunbartonshire (a fall of eight households). However, over the period since 2002, all areas have seen an increase in the number of households.The areas with the greatest increase since 2002 in percentage terms have been Orkney (an increase of 16.3 per cent, 1,377 households) and Aberdeenshire (an increase of 14.8 per cent, 13,637 households). Edinburgh City has seen the largest increase in terms of absolute numbers (17,793 households, an increase of 8.6 per cent).

Council Tax bands

There are far more dwellings in the lower value Council Tax bands in more deprived areas. In the 10 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland⁶ , most dwellings (95 per cent) are in the lower value Council Tax bands, compared to just 12 per cent in the 10 per cent 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 (at least 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, 2.9 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 that are occupied (88.0 per cent, compared to between 94.9 and 96.6 per cent in other areas). In these areas, 4.8 per cent of all dwellings are vacant and 7.2 per cent are second homes. In the 10 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland, 4.4 per cent of all dwellings are vacant. In the other areas of Scotland, the figures vary between 1.7 and 3.4 per cent, with the proportion of vacant dwellings generally being lower in less deprived areas.

Level of deprivation by type of household

More deprived areas generally contain more households with just one adult (with or without children). The 10 per cent most deprived areas have 53 per cent of households in this category. This figure halves to 26 per cent in the 10 per cent least deprived areas.
The opposite trend is true for two-adult households (with or without children). Generally, the more deprived an area, the fewer of these types of households there are. The 10 per cent most deprived areas have 40 per cent of households in this category, whereas this figure increases to 65 per cent in the 10 per cent least deprived areas.
The number of households comprised of three or more adults remains relatively constant across all levels of deprivation at an average of 10 per cent.

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