UK Housing Stock Profile 2021

ONS Census 2021 · 331 local authorities · Dwelling type, central heating, occupancy, car availability · Reference date: 21 March 2021

What is the housing stock profile of England and Wales?

According to ONS Census 2021, 24.8 million households in England and Wales have a national Gera Housing Stock Profile (GHSP) of 74/100, where 54.7% of dwellings are detached or semi-detached, 73.8% use mains gas heating, and 4.3% are overcrowded by bedroom standard. The GHSP scores each of 331 local authorities from 0 to 100 across dwelling type, occupancy, heating type, and car availability.

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) — Census 2021 Bulk Download (TS044/TS045/TS046/TS052) · Census day 21 March 2021 · published January 2023 · fetched 2026-06-20 · Open Government Licence v3.0

GHSP 74/100Gera Housing Stock Profile — national England & Wales baseline. How it is calculated

National summary — England and Wales (Census 2021)

Computed from ONS Census 2021 Tables TS044/TS045/TS046/TS052. All figures are direct counts from the published CSVs.

Metric	England & Wales	ONS table
Total households	24,783,191	TS044
Detached + semi-detached	54.7%	TS044
Mains gas heating only	73.8%	TS046
Overcrowded (bedroom standard)	4.3%	TS052
No car or van in household	23.3%	TS045
National GHSP	74/100	Gera composite

Highest GHSP scores — most spacious, well-connected housing

Local authority	GHSP	Det+semi	Mains gas
Blaby	89/100	83.6%	85.4%
North East Derbyshire	86/100	80.1%	83.2%
Castle Point	86/100	79.8%	82.2%
Rochford	86/100	79.5%	81.1%
Rushcliffe	86/100	77.8%	81.6%
South Staffordshire	86/100	78.7%	79.2%
Wokingham	85/100	71.9%	82.2%
South Derbyshire	85/100	76.2%	79.4%
South Ribble	85/100	74.4%	84%
Harborough	85/100	78.0%	74.8%

Lowest GHSP scores — denser, more urban housing stock

Local authority	GHSP	Flat%	Overcrowded%
City of London	35/100	87%	4.7%
Tower Hamlets	41/100	80.7%	15.9%
Westminster	44/100	70.2%	10.2%
Southwark	46/100	64.4%	12.2%
Camden	47/100	56.2%	9.5%
Hackney	47/100	60.4%	12.7%
Islington	47/100	57.4%	9.4%
Kensington and Chelsea	48/100	56.7%	8.1%
Hammersmith and Fulham	50/100	48.1%	9.1%
Newham	50/100	43.6%	21.5%

Browse all 331 local authorities

Adur Allerdale Amber Valley Arun Ashfield Ashford Babergh Barking and Dagenham Barnet Barnsley Barrow-in-Furness Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bath and North East Somerset Bedford Bexley Birmingham Blaby Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Blaenau Gwent Bolsover Bolton Boston Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Bracknell Forest Bradford Braintree Breckland Brent Brentwood Bridgend Brighton and Hove Bristol, City of Broadland Bromley Bromsgrove Broxbourne Broxtowe Buckinghamshire Burnley Bury Caerphilly Calderdale Cambridge Camden Cannock Chase Canterbury Cardiff Carlisle Carmarthenshire Castle Point Central Bedfordshire Ceredigion Charnwood Chelmsford Cheltenham Cherwell Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Chesterfield Chichester Chorley City of London Colchester Conwy Copeland Cornwall Cotswold County Durham Coventry Craven Crawley Croydon Dacorum Darlington Dartford Denbighshire Derby Derbyshire Dales Doncaster Dorset Dover Dudley Ealing East Cambridgeshire East Devon East Hampshire East Hertfordshire East Lindsey East Riding of Yorkshire East Staffordshire East Suffolk Eastbourne Eastleigh Eden Elmbridge Enfield Epping Forest Epsom and Ewell Erewash Exeter Fareham Fenland Flintshire Folkestone and Hythe Forest of Dean Fylde Gateshead Gedling Gloucester Gosport Gravesham Great Yarmouth Greenwich Guildford Gwynedd Hackney Halton Hambleton Hammersmith and Fulham Harborough Haringey Harlow Harrogate Harrow Hart Hartlepool Hastings Havant Havering Herefordshire, County of Hertsmere High Peak Hillingdon Hinckley and Bosworth Horsham Hounslow Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Ipswich Isle of Anglesey Isle of Wight Isles of Scilly Islington Kensington and Chelsea King's Lynn and West Norfolk Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Thames Kirklees Knowsley Lambeth Lancaster Leeds Leicester Lewes Lewisham Lichfield Lincoln Liverpool Luton Maidstone Maldon Malvern Hills Manchester Mansfield Medway Melton Mendip Merthyr Tydfil Merton Mid Devon Mid Suffolk Mid Sussex Middlesbrough Milton Keynes Mole Valley Monmouthshire Neath Port Talbot New Forest Newark and Sherwood Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle-under-Lyme Newham Newport North Devon North East Derbyshire North East Lincolnshire North Hertfordshire North Kesteven North Lincolnshire North Norfolk North Northamptonshire North Somerset North Tyneside North Warwickshire North West Leicestershire Northumberland Norwich Nottingham Nuneaton and Bedworth Oadby and Wigston Oldham Oxford Pembrokeshire Pendle Peterborough Plymouth Portsmouth Powys Preston Reading Redbridge Redcar and Cleveland Redditch Reigate and Banstead Rhondda Cynon Taff Ribble Valley Richmond upon Thames Richmondshire Rochdale Rochford Rossendale Rother Rotherham Rugby Runnymede Rushcliffe Rushmoor Rutland Ryedale Salford Sandwell Scarborough Sedgemoor Sefton Selby Sevenoaks Sheffield Shropshire Slough Solihull Somerset West and Taunton South Cambridgeshire South Derbyshire South Gloucestershire South Hams South Holland South Kesteven South Lakeland South Norfolk South Oxfordshire South Ribble South Somerset South Staffordshire South Tyneside Southampton Southend-on-Sea Southwark Spelthorne St Albans St. Helens Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stevenage Stockport Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Sunderland Surrey Heath Sutton Swale Swansea Swindon Tameside Tamworth Tandridge Teignbridge Telford and Wrekin Tendring Test Valley Tewkesbury Thanet Three Rivers Thurrock Tonbridge and Malling Torbay Torfaen Torridge Tower Hamlets Trafford Tunbridge Wells Uttlesford Vale of Glamorgan Vale of White Horse Wakefield Walsall Waltham Forest Wandsworth Warrington Warwick Watford Waverley Wealden Welwyn Hatfield West Berkshire West Devon West Lancashire West Lindsey West Northamptonshire West Oxfordshire West Suffolk Westminster Wigan Wiltshire Winchester Windsor and Maidenhead Wirral Woking Wokingham Wolverhampton Worcester Worthing Wrexham Wychavon Wyre Wyre Forest York

Frequently asked questions

What is the housing stock profile of England and Wales from Census 2021?

What is the Gera Housing Stock Profile (GHSP)?

The Gera Housing Stock Profile (GHSP) is a 0–100 index computed from four ONS Census 2021 Topic Summary tables (TS044 accommodation type, TS045 car availability, TS046 central heating, TS052 bedroom occupancy rating). Formula: GHSP = 0.30 × (detached+semi)% + 0.25 × (100 − overcrowded%) + 0.25 × mains-gas% + 0.20 × (100 − no-car%). A higher score indicates a local authority with more spacious housing, lower overcrowding, stronger mains-gas connection, and higher car availability. National England & Wales baseline: 74/100. Source: ONS Census 2021 (OGL v3.0), census day 21 March 2021. All data is published by ONS.

Which local authority has the highest GHSP score?

Blaby has the highest GHSP score at 89/100 (83.6% detached or semi-detached, 85.4% mains gas, 1.8% overcrowded). Source: ONS Census 2021 (OGL v3.0).

What percentage of UK households have no central heating?

According to ONS Census 2021 (Table TS046, England and Wales), approximately 21.2% of households use non-gas heating. Nationally, 73.8% of households use mains gas as their sole heating source. Rates vary significantly by local authority — rural areas often have higher oil-heating rates, and dense urban areas have higher electric-only rates. Source: ONS Census 2021, OGL v3.0.

What percentage of UK households are overcrowded according to Census 2021?

The ONS bedroom standard defines overcrowding as a household having one or fewer bedrooms than required. Across England and Wales, 4.3% of households were overcrowded at Census Day 21 March 2021 (ONS Table TS052, OGL v3.0). The rate varies from under 1% in rural authorities to over 10% in some inner-London boroughs.

What are the most common dwelling types in England and Wales?

Per ONS Census 2021 (Table TS044), 54.7% of households occupy detached or semi-detached houses across England and Wales. Semi-detached houses are the most common single type nationally. Urban local authorities have significantly higher flat proportions. Source: ONS Census 2021, OGL v3.0, census day 21 March 2021.

How the GHSP is calculated

Full methodology with formula and data source table →

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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) — Census 2021, Tables TS044, TS045, TS046, TS052, reference date 21 March 2021, published January 2023, fetched 2026-06-20. Total pages in this cluster: 333.