Demographics of British Bangladeshis - Housing

Housing

Bangladeshi households contain the largest numbers of people living together than any other ethnic group. The average number of people living in each house was 4.5 people (at least 5 people in each house), based on the census. Households which contained only one person was at just 9%. Nearly three-quarters of houses at least contained a child living with parents, the highest figure than any other ethnic group, three times larger than White families. The percent of houses which contained a married couple was at 54%, also the largest, and the proportion of pensioner households ranged from 2 per cent of Bangladeshi households to 27 per cent of White Irish households. These types of households made up 2 per cent of all households in Great Britain whereas among the Bangladeshi community they made up 17 per cent of households.

Bangladeshis living London were to be 40 times more likely to be living in cramped and poor housing types of housing than anyone else in the country, especially in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where more than half of the UK Bangladeshi population lives. Families were to have twice as many people per room as white households and 43% live in homes with insufficient bedroom space - compared with a national average of just 3%. The desire to remain within a tight community is putting Bangladeshis off moving to new larger housing and to areas where larger properties and space are available. A third of Bangladeshi homes contain an extended family – 64% of all overcrowded households in Tower Hamlets are Bangladeshi.