The bar chart illustrates the proportions of households that owned and rented accommodation in England and Wales from 1918 to 2011.
Overall, the percentages of owner-occupied households rose steadily while those of rented households declined over the years. Notably, the two proportions reached parity in the middle of the period, after which homeownership became the dominant form of accommodation.
An opposite trend was observed in the two forms of housing from 1918 to 1971. The figure for rented households started at the highest level of roughly 77% and then declined steadily. In contrast, homeownership initially stood at nearly a third of the rented household figure and increased gradually. As a result, both figures reached the same level of 50% by 1971.
The second half of the period saw a reversal in the dominance of the two housing types. The figure for homeownership continued to grow, peaking at around 70% in 2001 before falling slightly by 2011. Conversely, the figure for rented households fell to just over 30% in 2001 before recovering marginally by the end of the period. In the end, owned accommodation was almost double rented accommodation, marking a complete reversal of the housing pattern seen in 1918.