2025/09/05 by Rory Coulter · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Health Professions · #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies #Employment and Welfare Studies #Health disparities and outcomes
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/geoj.70049
openalex publication_date 2025/09/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract In Britain, ethnic minorities have long been disproportionately likely to live in overcrowded homes and to experience other forms of housing disadvantage. However, in recent years, housing policy across Great Britain has retreated away from acknowledging and seeking to address these ethnic disparities. This study critically assesses the evidence for this policy shift by examining the contemporary magnitude and geography of ethnic disparities in overcrowding across England and Wales. This is achieved by analysing 2021 Census microdata using multilevel logistic regressions. The results show that even after controlling for differences in the demographic and socio‐economic attributes of ethnic groups, almost all ethnic minorities have a substantially higher propensity to live in overcrowded homes than comparable White Britons. In addition, while overcrowding is generally more common in places where housing constraints are more acute, ethnic disparities in overcrowding vary geographically in more complex and group‐specific ways. Taken together, these findings indicate that longstanding patterns of ethnic housing disparity have not faded away. Greater recognition of these persistent inequalities and renewed efforts to address them thus need to be built back into local and national housing policies.