These figures record the percentage of people living in households with more than one and a half people per room (not counting bathrooms and corridors). Note that this measure cannot be calculated for Scotland in 1931 or 1951.

The figures for 1931 are for 'families', not households, and the total number of families excludes those with more than five rooms. Housing in the north-east resembled that in Scotland, with fewer but larger rooms, while in the north-west of England people lived in terraced houses with lots of small rooms. In the 1950s and 1960s very active slum clearance programmes, construction of 'overspill' estates and new towns, and middle class families being able to afford better homes all led to great improvements.

By 1971 only 6% of households in England and Wales had less than one room per person. The concentration of bad conditions in the north-east and London remained, although the north-east saw remarkable improvement in its relative position during the 1970s.