• Market income per person
• Income inequality
• Population with low incomes
• Population with low living standards
• Housing affordability
• Household crowding

Household crowding

Relevance

Housing space adequate to the needs and desires of a family is a core component of quality of life. National and international studies show an association between the prevalence of certain infectious diseases and crowding⁵⁹ as well as between crowding and poor educational attainment. Crowding can also contribute to psychological stress for people in the households concerned.

Current level and trends

In 2001, 348,400 people, or 10 percent of the New Zealand resident population, lived in households requiring one or more additional bedrooms to adequately accommodate household members, based on the criteria in the Canadian Crowding Index (see Appendix 2). The number of people in crowded households has reduced since 1991, when 379,900 people or 12 percent of the population were living in crowded conditions.

The Canadian Crowding Index also shows how many people live in houses where two or more bedrooms are required. In 2001 there were 109,000 people or 3.2 percent of the usually resident population in this situation, compared to 113,000 or 3.5 percent in 1991.

Figure EC6.1 Proportion of population living in households requiring at least one additional bedroom, by ethnic group, 1991 and 2001

Source: Statistics New Zealand 

Age and sex differences

Household crowding is more likely to be experienced by younger people than by older people. In 2001, 17 percent of children under the age of 10 years lived in households requiring at least one more bedroom, compared to 15 percent of 10–14 year olds. Among all adults aged 15 years and over, 8 percent lived in crowded households but this ranged from 16 percent of 15–24 year olds, to 9 percent of 25–44 year olds, 5 percent of 45–64 year olds and just 2 percent of those aged 65 years and over.

Between 1991 and 2001 there was a decrease, from 17 percent to 16 percent, in the proportion of children under the age of 18 years living in crowded households, defined as needing one or more additional bedrooms. However, there was no change in the proportion of this age group living in more severe crowding levels where at least two more bedrooms were required (5 percent in both 1991 and 2001).

There is very little difference by sex in the likelihood of living in crowded households.

Ethnic differences

Pacific peoples are far more likely to be living in crowded households than other ethnic groups. In 2001, a total of 43 percent of Pacific peoples lived in households requiring extra bedrooms. People in the Other ethnic group were the next most likely, with 25 percent requiring at least one extra bedroom, followed by Māori (23 percent) and Asians (20 percent). Partly reflecting their older age profile, only 5 percent of European New Zealanders were living in houses that met the definition of crowding used here. The Other ethnic group was the only ethnic group to have an increased incidence of crowding between 1991 and 2001. One possible explanation for this trend is that recent migrants, common in this ethnic group, are more likely to live in crowded households.⁶⁰

The largest group of those living in households requiring at least one extra bedroom were those who identified as European (38 percent), followed by Māori (34 percent), Pacific peoples (28 percent), Asian (14 percent) and the Other ethnic group (just 2 percent).⁶¹ However, of those living in more severe crowding situations (households requiring two or more bedrooms), Pacific peoples and Māori made up the largest groups (41 percent and 38 percent, respectively).

Cultural attitudes and economic circumstances are two primary factors that account for the extreme variation in crowding levels between ethnic groups. The variance in population age structures is also a factor: the Māori and Pacific peoples ethnic groups both have younger age structures than the European population.

Socio-economic differences

Unemployed people are more likely to be living in crowded households than those with full-time jobs (20 percent and 6 percent, respectively). Other groups with crowding levels above the average adult level of 8 percent include people with no qualifications (10 percent) and people who receive income support (16 percent).⁶²

There is a clear correlation between levels of income and levels of crowding: in 2001, 6 percent of households in the bottom quartile of equivalised household income required one or more bedrooms, compared with 2 percent of those in the top income quartile.

Households in rental accommodation were more likely to be crowded (11 percent) than those in dwellings owned with a mortgage (4 percent) or mortgage-free (2 percent).

Regional differences

Household crowding varies considerably across the country. Whether measured by population or household, Manukau City has by far the highest level of household crowding (24 percent of people and 13 percent of households required one or more bedrooms in 2001). The next highest levels were in Opotiki District and Porirua City, where almost one in five people, and one in 10 households, required at least one more bedroom. Other local authority areas with relatively high levels of crowding were Auckland City and the Far North, Wairoa and Kawerau Districts. All of the South Island local authorities had lower than average levels of household crowding.