Number of people in London in poverty by housing tenure (2004/05 - 2021/22)
The raw numbers of people counted as being in poverty are at similar levels for both social renters (810,000) and private renters (780,000), whereas those living in owner occupied housing who are in poverty are far fewer in number at 530,000.
Poverty rates are highest for those in social rented housing (49%), compared to 31% of those in privately rented, and 11% of owner occupiers.
If we look at the split of housing tenures of just people in poverty in 2021/22, we can see 38% are in social rented, 37% are private rented and 25% are owner occupied housing. In 2004/05 only 22% of people in poverty lived in privately rented housing. This means the number of Londoners in poverty living in the private-rented sector has increased by 65% - a very significant shift.
Read our explainer for how poverty is measured here.
Read our analysis of the latest poverty statistics for London here.
NOTE: These results show three-year averages to the stated date. Please note that data for 2020/21 have been excluded from analysis due to concerns with bias in the sample. Poverty is defined as 60% of median household income for that year after housing costs.