Increase in Number of Households in Scotland

The number of households in Scotland continues to rise and there are fewer empty dwellings and second homes than in recent years, the Registrar General announced today as he published the Household Estimates for Scotland, 2006.

Duncan Macniven, Registrar General for Scotland said:

“Although there has been little change in Scotland’s population in recent years, the number of households continues to increase because household structures are changing. More people are living alone and in smaller households. The ageing of Scotland’s population is also having an effect. Older people are more likely to live alone, or with one other person.”

Key facts in the new statistics are:

Number of households: The number of households in Scotland has been increasing steadily, by between 11,000 and 23,000 each year since 1991. Over the last year, there has been an increase of 20,000 households (just under one per cent). This takes the total to 2.3 million households in Scotland in 2006.
The increase in the number of households is mainly due to an increase in the number of dwellings (up by 19,000). The number of vacant dwellings and second homes has fallen (down by 290), as more of the existing housing stock is occupied.
Local authority areas: In every local authority area, the number of households has remained constant or increased over the last year, and over the last five years. The areas with the greatest increases over the last five years have been Aberdeenshire (8.7 per cent), West Lothian (8 per cent), Highland (7.5 per cent) and Perth and Kinross (7.3 per cent). The areas with the smallest change were Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire, with changes of less than one per cent over the five year period.
Vacant dwellings and second homes: Since 2002, the number of vacant dwellings and second homes in Scotland has fallen each year. This may have been influenced by a change in Council Tax policy which gave councils discretion to reduce the Council Tax discount for second homes and long term empty properties. The trend continued between 2005 and 2006 with a small drop of 290.
In 2006, 101,000 dwellings in Scotland were vacant or second homes (one in every 24 dwellings). The areas with the highest proportion of vacant properties and second homes (between 7 and 13 per cent of all dwellings) are the island local authorities (Eilean Siar, Orkney and Shetland), Argyll and Bute, Highland, Dundee City and Scottish Borders. However, in all these areas the number of vacant dwellings and second homes has remained stable or dropped between 2001 and 2006. Local authority areas in the Central Belt of Scotland tend to have the lowest proportion of vacant dwellings and second homes.
Size of households: Since 1991, Scotland’s total population has not changed greatly. However, the number of households has continued to increase (by over 12 per cent since 1991), because the average household size is getting smaller, with more people living alone and in smaller households.

Notes for News Editors

Estimates of the number of households are mainly used for informing local authority decisions about housing needs and service provision. They are also used as the denominator for other statistics, and in the production of projections of the future number of households in Scotland, every two years.

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