The chart illustrates how much accommodation in England and Wales was rented and owned by households from 1918 to 2011.
Overall, although renting accommodation was initially the biggest percentage, it was overtaken by owning accommodation towards the end of the survey. Besides, the figures for households owning and renting accommodation remained at the same level in the middle of the years.
At the beginning, the share of rented accommodation stood first with more than 75% of households, while owning accommodation was the least significant (approximately 20%) in 1918. After around 30 years, renting and owning accommodation saw similar percentages, with the former having a remarkable decline and the latter increasing remarkably at 68% and 23%, respectively. This was followed by an unchanged level in 1953.
There was a dramatic growth in owning accommodation from 1961 to 1981, before it was the same as renting accommodation, which decreased steadily throughout the last years. However, in 2001, owning reached the highest level of accommodation, at nearly 70% of households, by a narrow margin in 1991. After which, owning shares experienced a 5% decrease at the end of the year.