The chart illustrates the different shares of household composition in the UK from 1981 to 2001.
Overall, there were decreases in the percentage of households that are more than 3 people. In UK, more and more people wanted to live alone or live in a couple, as illustrated by an increasing percentage of these two figures after 20 years. Significantly, in both years, the share of 6-person household remained to be the least among 6 groups.
More specifically, single household saw an increase in its percentage, which started the period at 17% and rose by 9% after 20 years, surpassed the percentage of 3-person household to become the second highest category. The figure for couple household enforced its dominance by having a slight uptrend, from 31% to 34% in 2001.
Turning to categories with downward trend, the share of 3-person and 4-person household underwent a 3% decline in the end of the researched period, at initially 20% and 18% to 17% and 15%, respectively. The proportion of household having 5 people in 1981 was 8%, followed by that figure of 6-person household, at 6% and end the period at 6% and magnificently 2% respectively.
