Story · Energy map · about 3 min
The homes with no central heating
Central heating became normal in Britain within living memory, and the census still finds homes without it: no boiler, no storage heaters, no communal system, nothing but a plug-in heater or a fire. There are not many, which is what makes the few places full of them interesting.
Fifteen homes in a thousand
On Census day 2021, 1.5% of households in England and Wales had no central heating of any kind, 1.5% in England and 1.2% in Wales. Almost the whole map sits in the lowest class, so this layer is really about finding the exceptions rather than reading a pattern.
The Isles of Scilly
One council stands far above every other: Isles of Scilly, where 18% of households have no central heating, more than ten times the England figure. There is no mains gas on the islands, the homes are small and old, and the winters are the mildest in Britain.
And central London
The next two councils are Westminster and City of London, both at about 4%, and London as a whole reads 2.2%. Small flats in old buildings, often heated by whatever plugs into the wall, sit next to some of the most expensive property in the country.
Scotland and the islands
Scotland’s 2022 census puts the country at 2.1%, with Orkney Islands highest at 5%: islands again, and again off the gas grid. The census asked what heating a home has, not whether it works or whether the bills can be paid, so a cold home with a boiler never appears here.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why would islands without a gas network show more homes with no central heating than a poor inner-city estate?
- This layer shows what heating exists, not what it costs to run. Which layer on this map would you put beside it?
Try it on the map: Turn on fuel poverty by council and see how little the two maps agree.
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.