Households and dwellings: Census 2021

Dwellings

In March 2021 there were:

48,610 private dwellings (including vacant dwellings)
44,583 occupied private households
162 communal establishments

The number of private dwellings in Jersey increased by 9% (3,912 dwellings) in the 10 years since the 2011 Census (which recorded 44,698 dwellings).

Vacant dwellings

In March 2021, 8.3% of all private dwellings were vacant (4,027 dwellings):

St Helier had the highest number of vacant dwellings (1,741 dwellings)
St Peter had the highest proportion of vacant dwellings (10%)

Property type, size and tenure

Types of occupied property in Jersey in March 2021:

over half were houses (55%)
more than two-fifths were flats (45%)
a third (31%) were semi-detached or terraced houses

Almost a third of occupied dwellings were flats in purpose-built blocks

Number of occupied dwellings by property type in 2021 and 2011, excluding vacant dwellings

Property type	2011	2021	% change
Detached house	10,808	11,115	+3
Semi-detached house	7,990	9,097	+14
Terraced house	4,528	4,517	0
Flat (purpose built block)	11,759	14,009	+19
Flat (part of converted house)	5,278	4,714	-11
Flat (in a commercial building)	1,080	1,007	-7
Temporary structure (tent, boat or Portakabin™)	152	124	-18
All	41,595	44,583	+7

Household tenure

At the 2021 census:

more than half of households were owner-occupied
a third were privately rented (qualified or non-qualified)
around one in seven households were in social housing

Tenure of private households, 2011 and 2021, excluding vacant dwellings

	2011 number of dwellings	2021 number of dwellings
Owner-occupier	22,574	23,870
Social housing rent	5,656	5,826
Qualified private rental	7,806	10,739
Staff, service or tied accommodation	1,274	1,095
Registered lodging house	652	700
Lodger in private household	1,070	857
Other non-qualified accommodation	2,563	1,496
Total	41,595	44,583

The 2021 census also found that:

41% of single parent households with dependent children were living in States, housing trust or parish rental accommodation
23% of single parent households with dependent children were living in owner-occupied accommodation
83% of households with two or more pensioners lived in owner-occupied accommodation

Persons and bedrooms per dwelling

Excluding communal establishments, 101,188 people were living in 44,583 private dwellings in 2021. This is an average of 2.27 persons per dwelling.
The number of persons per dwelling has been falling over the last five decades.

Number of persons per private dwelling 1971 – 2021

Number of bedrooms

The 2021 census also provides a breakdown of dwellings by number of bedrooms:

82% of dwellings had one, two or three bedrooms
over two-thirds (66%) of non-qualified accommodation had one bedroom
almost seven out of ten (68%) owner-occupier households had three or more bedrooms
on average there were 2.47 bedrooms per dwelling

Overcrowding and under-occupation

Using the ‘Bedroom Standard’ measure of over-crowding, 1,783 households were classed as ‘overcrowded’, having fewer bedrooms than required by the standard.
The proportion of overcrowded households decreased marginally over ten years, from 4.5% in 2011 to 4.0% in 2021. Overcrowding was highest for households living in non-qualified accommodation.

Proportion of households considered to be ‘overcrowded’ by the Bedroom Standard, by tenure (percent), 2011 and 2021

Around a quarter of households were under-occupying their accommodation. This means they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed, as measured by the Bedroom Standard. The majority of these were owner-occupier households.

Proportion of households considered to be ‘under-occupied’ by the Bedroom Standard, by tenure (percent), 2011 and 2021