Indicator
Inequalities in households experiencing housing problems
Published
1 July 2024
Last updated
20 June 2025
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
- Households on the lowest incomes are far more likely to have at least one housing problem.
- Households that are headed by someone from a minority ethnic group or a younger adult, or households where someone is ill or disabled, are more likely to have at least one housing problem.
Problems with people’s homes – non-decent homes, overcrowding and unaffordable costs – can influence their health. Non-decent homes include problems such as damp and cold, which can directly harm health. Overcrowding and poor affordability can cause stress and influence mental health. If someone experiences more than one of these problems, this risks further harm to their health.
These charts show the percentage of people experiencing one or more housing problems by age, ethnicity, income and disability within the household.
- A significantly higher percentage of households on the lowest incomes (in the bottom quintile of the income distribution) have one or more housing problems (71.8%) compared with households in the second-lowest income quintile (37.2%) and all the other quintiles.
- A total of 15.2% of households in the lowest income quintile experience multiple housing problems, compared with less than 5% for all other income quintiles.
- More than 4 in 10 households (43.5%) from minority ethnic backgrounds experience a housing problem, compared with 27.4% of people of white ethnicity. Households headed by people from minority ethnic backgrounds are more than twice as likely to experience two or more housing problems.
- The age group most likely to experience housing problems is 16 to 29-year-olds (40.8%), compared with 23.8% of people older than 65 years. People in the 16 to 29-year-old age group are also most likely to be renting, and people who are renting are more likely to experience multiple housing problems.
- People who live in households where someone is ill or disabled are more likely to experience housing problems (35% compared with 26.3%).
- Non-decent homes are defined as those with a Category 1 hazard – as assessed by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) – which identifies homes that are not in a reasonable state of repair, lack reasonably modern facilities or are not warm enough (do not provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort).
- Overcrowding is measured by comparing household size against a bedroom standard. This standard sets the number of rooms a household needs, based on the relationship status of adults in the household, and the age and sex of the children.
- Unaffordable housing is where more than a third (33%) of household income (net housing benefit) is spent on housing costs.
- Analysis by ethnicity refers to minority ethnic groups altogether, as detail on ethnicity at a more granular level is not available in the data.
Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, English Housing Survey, England, 2023–24
