Renting from a private landlord

Published

1. Main facts and figures

  • 4.4 million (19%) of the 23.1 million households in England rented their home from a private landlord in the 2 years from April 2021 to May 2023

  • White British households (14%) were the least likely to rent their home privately out of all ethnic groups

  • 55% of households in the Black Other ethnic group rented privately, followed by 52% of Mixed White and Black African households

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data shows the number and percentage of households who rent their home from a private landlord, by ethnicity.

Privately-rented housing includes accommodation linked 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 5 households have not been included. This is to protect people’s confidentiality, and because it is harder to make reliable generalisations from smaller numbers of survey respondents.

The ethnic groups used in the data

Data is shown for the 18 ethnic groups from the 2011 Census.

Data is based on the ethnicity of the 'household reference person'. This is usually the person responsible for the tenancy or mortgage. If there are joint owners or tenants, it is the person with the highest income. If they have the same income, it is the oldest person.

The data does not account for people of different ethnic backgrounds who live in the same household.

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 2021 to March 2023. 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 are based on survey data. Find out more about:

In the data file

Download the data for:

  • percentages rounded to 1 decimal place
  • sample sizes
  • weighted figures for the numerator and denominator

3. By ethnicity

Percentage and number of households (in thousands) that rented their home privately, by ethnicity
Ethnicity % Private renters ('000s) All households ('000s)
All 19 4,375 23,105
Asian 31 477 1,529
Bangladeshi 23 29 125
Chinese 48 73 151
Indian 28 185 673
Pakistani 27 96 352
Asian other 41 94 227
Black 34 264 778
Black African 38 189 496
Black Caribbean 20 47 232
Black other 55 27 49
Mixed 37 173 465
Mixed White/Asian 24 25 104
Mixed White/Black African 52 76 147
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 22 20 92
Mixed other 43 52 122
White 17 3,300 19,933
White British 14 2,678 18,552
White Irish 18 29 160
White Gypsy/Traveller withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 11
White other 49 592 1,210
Other 40 161 401
Arab 43 28 65
Any other 40 133 336

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)

4. Data sources

Source

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 English Housing Survey headline report and other annual reports is usually based on a 12-month period, rather than the 2 years’ combined data used here. As a result, the statistics shown here may not match those in the English Housing Survey reports.

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey. It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

5. Download the data

Renting from a private landlord data - Spreadsheet (csv) 59 KB

measure time time_type ethnicity ethnicity_type geography nssec income_band region age_group value numerator_000s denominator_000s sample_size