Time spent living in current home

Published

1. Main facts and figures

  • in the 2 years to March 2023, people in White British and White Irish households had lived in their current home for 15 years on average – longer than all other ethnic groups

  • Black Caribbean households had lived in their current home for an average of 12 years – the second longest amount of time

  • Households from the Arab ethnic group had lived in their current home for the shortest time (5 years), followed by households from the White Other ethnic group (6 years)

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data shows the average length of time that people in England have lived in their current home, by ethnicity.

The information relates to households, which is either one person or a group of people (not necessarily related) sharing cooking facilities and a living room or dining area, and who have the accommodation as their only or main residence.

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 used in 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 the data on this page.

The data is an average for the 2 years from April 2021 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 figures rounded to 1 decimal place and by:

  • socio-economic group
  • income
  • area
  • age
  • tenure

3. By ethnicity

Average time (in years) spent living in current home, by ethnicity
Ethnicity Years in current home
All 14
Asian 9
Bangladeshi 10
Chinese 7
Indian 10
Pakistani 10
Asian other 8
Black 9
Black African 7
Black Caribbean 12
Black other 8
Mixed 8
Mixed White/Asian 8
Mixed White/Black African 7
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 10
Mixed other 10
White 15
White British 15
White Irish 15
White Gypsy/Traveller 11
White other 6
Other 9
Arab 5
Any other 10

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

Time spent living in current home data - Spreadsheet (csv) 37 KB

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