Physical environment: overcrowding

Overcrowding is one of the indicators which has been used historically in deprivation indices such as the Carstairs Index, and indeed is one of the variables that currently make up the new Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). Chart 1 shows, by NHS Board area, the proportion of households classified as overcrowded at the last census. Even at a geographical level as large as health board area, considerable variation in overcrowding rates across the country is clearly visible: from under 6% of households in rural health board areas such as the Western Isles and Shetland, to almost 20% within the Greater Glasgow area. The figure for Scotland in 2001 was just under 12%.

Chart 2 shows the same data (percentage of all households classed as overcrowded) broken down by council area. Unsurprisingly, there is slightly more variation in rates across Scotland at this level than is seen in an analysis by NHS Board area (chart 1), with a four-fold difference in rates between the council area with the lowest figure, Western Isles (5.6%),  and the one with the highest - Glasgow City (22.5%).

Chart 3 shows a twenty year trend in levels of overcrowding in Scotland taken from the 1981, 1991 and 2001 censuses. Note that in this chart overcrowding is expressed as a percentage of the total population, rather than as a percentage of households.

As is apparent, a dramatic decline in levels of overcrowding has taken place over the course of the last two decades: the proportion of the Scottish population recorded as living in such circumstances has fallen from 18% in 1981 to just under 5% in 2001.

(NB Note that other published figures quote the 1981 overcrowding figure for Scotland as 25%. However, to allow valid comparison with 1991 and 2001, a correction factor has been applied to the 1981 data).