Northern Ireland
Lacking consumer durables
Key points
- Over the last decade, the proportion of households in Northern Ireland lacking consumer durables has come down sharply. For example, the proportion without a microwave oven has fallen from 28% to 9%; the proportion without a video recorder or DVD player from 25% to 9%; and the proportion without a freezer from 20% to 2%.
- All the items shown are now possessed by the vast majority of households on average income. The inference is that it is now 'ordinary' to do so.
- The tiny proportion of the poorest fifth lacking colour televisions is little higher than that for households on average incomes. By contrast, for all the other items shown, the proportion of households in the poorest fifth lacking them is much higher than for those on average incomes. So 25% lack video recorders or DVD players, 15% lack microwave ovens, and 10% lack washing machines. In all these cases, these proportions are at least twice that for households on average incomes.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: By level of income
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the proportion of households lacking selected consumer durables.
The second graph shows how the proportion of households lacking selected durables varies by level of household income. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for the latest three years.
The data source for both graphs is the Continuous Household Survey.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: limited. The choice of consumer durables in the analysis is largely driven by the data availability and is both somewhat arbitrary and rather limited.