1. Main facts and figures
- 4.6 million (20%) of the 23 million households in England rented their home from a private landlord in the 2 years from 2016 to 2018
- White British households were less likely than most other ethnic groups to rent their home privately
- in every socio-economic group and region, White British households were less likely to rent privately than those from all ethnic minorities combined
- in every income band except for the lowest, White British households were less likely to rent privately than those from all ethnic minorities combined
- in every age group except people aged 65 and over, White British householders were less likely to rent their home privately than households from all ethnic minority groups combined
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data measures the number and percentage of households who rent their home from a private landlord.
Privately rented housing includes accommodation that is connected to a job or made available rent-free. It does not include people who rent social housing.
The information relates to households, which is either one person or a group of people sharing cooking facilities and a living room or dining area.
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Not included in the data
Estimates based on fewer than 30 households have not been included. This is to protect people’s confidentiality, and because it’s harder to make reliable generalisations from smaller numbers of survey respondents.
The ethnic groups used in the data
For national estimates, the 18 ethnic groups from the 2011 Census are shown.
For data analysed by ethnicity and another factor, 2 ethnic groups are shown:
- White British
- Other – all ethnic minority groups (including White minorities)
This is to keep group sizes big enough to be able to make reliable generalisations.
Each household’s ethnic group is the ethnicity of the ‘household reference person’ (usually the named homeowner or main tenant).
The ethnicity was known for 99.8% of households.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for this data.
The data is an average for the 2 years from April 2016 to March 2018. This is to make sure there are enough households to be able to make reliable generalisations. You can read more about combining multiple years of data and some of the issues involved.
The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:
- interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed
- how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied
In the data file
See Download the data for:
- unrounded percentages
- sample sizes
- weighted figures for the numerator and denominator
3. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | % | Private renters ('000s) | All households ('000s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 20 | 4,606 | 23,160 |
| Asian | |||
| Bangladeshi | 21 | 32 | 152 |
| Chinese | 45 | 50 | 111 |
| Indian | 19 | 103 | 550 |
| Pakistani | 29 | 105 | 358 |
| Asian other | 38 | 72 | 190 |
| Black | |||
| Black African | 36 | 155 | 431 |
| Black Caribbean | 20 | 61 | 308 |
| Black other | 36 | 12 | 32 |
| Mixed | |||
| Mixed White/Asian | 20 | 10 | 52 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 25 | 21 | 85 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 36 | 34 | 93 |
| Mixed other | 34 | 25 | 73 |
| White | |||
| White British | 16 | 2,945 | 18,863 |
| White Irish | 21 | 44 | 213 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable |
| White other | 59 | 769 | 1,307 |
| Other | |||
| Arab | 51 | 42 | 83 |
| Any other | 49 | 123 | 250 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
4. Data sources
Source
English Housing Survey 2017 to 2018
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Note on corrections or updates
Information published in the headline report and other annual reports is based on a single year rather than 2 years' data. As a result, the figures shown here may not match those in the English Housing Survey reports.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The English Housing Survey collects information about:
- people’s housing circumstances
- the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: ethnicity, ethnicity type, year, geography, age group, NS-SEC (socio-economic group), income, region, value, denominator, numerator and sample size -- Please note, the overall percentage of people owning their own home differs when other variables are included in the analysis. This is because there were different response rates for questions about age, income, regions and socio-economic status (NS-SEC). This has resulted in 4 different percentages, sample sizes etc.