The bar chart illustrates the proportion of homes that were either bought or rented in England and Wales from 1918 to 2011. Units are measured in percentages.
Overall, an increased majority was renting in the beginning before experiencing a downward trend while there was an upward trend in people buying houses. Despite this, there was one period where the percentage of people that were renting and buying was the same.
In 1918, there was a significant percentage of people renting homes which was well over 75% or three-quarters of households. In contrast the percentage of home ownership was significantly smaller at about 22%. Noticeably, the number of people paying rent declined dramatically to 40% in 1981 compared to 60% of individuals owning their homes.
On the other hand, more people were owning their homes throughout the period. Initially, this number stood at around 22% in 1918, before increasing to more than one-third in 1953 and eventually increasing to nearly 70% in 2001. Moreover, in 1971,a similar number of households were renting and owning homes.