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A crude measure of household overcrowding

By Aaron Schiff • 16/03/2015 • 1


Next up on my Census challenge is the number of usual residents per household. I decided to look at the ratio of the average number of usual residents per household to the average number of bedrooms per dwelling, by meshblock for 2013.

As a very crude measure of household overcrowding, I’ve mapped the meshblocks in which this ratio is greater than one. It’s a crude measure because I don’t have data for individual households and dwellings, so I can only work with the meshblock averages.

With that caveat in mind, here’s the map for Auckland (click to see a bigger one):

AKL household usual members

And Wellington:

WLG household usual members

And Christchurch:

CHC household usual members

One Response to “A crude measure of household overcrowding”

  • Crude ain’t the half of it. Take the average NZ family with 2 adults and 1.9 kids in a three bedroom home and straight away they are “overcrowded”…