Housing Conditions of the 16 to 25-Year-Olds, 1981

The purpose of the survey is to obtain information for statistical and scientific assessment of the housing situation, preferences and demand for housing among the 16 to 25-year-olds, as well as to discover some educational and occupational consequences arising from the fact of a young person being without a dwelling. # A prerequisite for an improvement of people's housing conditions is that a larger number of new dwellings are built than the increase of population demands. Up till 1973 the number of new dwellings was so large that it meant not only dwellings for the increasing number of families but also a general improvement of the housing conditions. In the late 1960s and in the beginning of the 1970s approx. 50,000 new dwellings were built every year, but after a short increase in 1973 there was a decline in the building activities, and owing to the recession starting in the mid-seventies this decline continued so that in 1981 only 21,000 dwellings were built. Whether this is sufficient to maintain the housing standards depends on how many flats are closed down and on how long new and untenanted flats remain vacant. # The housing market consists of sub-markets, where many families move from poor to better dwellings and from there to even better dwellings. At the same time other families move into the dwellings which are left. Thus, removal to a newly built dwelling often results in a chain reaction, where 2 or 3 other families get a new dwelling. The decline in the building activities means that fewer chain reactions are started, and many families have to remain in dwellings which are perhaps poorer than dwellings they may actually afford. # For low-income groups this is probably particularly unfortunate as some of these have a dwelling which is poorer than what is considered to be up-to-date. For young people with low incomes, e.g. unemployed or students, this may mean that it becomes more difficult for them to get their own dwelling as they have traditionally taken over the cheaper dwellings which people now stay in owing to the decline in the building activities. # On the basis of this the Danish National Institute of Social Research in January 1981 initiated a survey of the marginal groups of the housing market, i.e. groups with unsatisfactory housing conditions. At the request of the Youth Housing Council the first phase was a survey of the housing situation of the 16 to 25-year-olds. The data material was collected by means of questionnaires sent to a representative sample of approx. 4000 young people. # The following information is included in the survey: # #General personal information concerning the 16 to 25-year-olds: #1. Personal information concerning the young person and her/his # spouse/cohabitant (sex, age, marital status). #2. Information regarding education and employment concerning # the young person and her/his spouse/cohabitant (school # education, vocational training, occupational status). #3. Gross household income and type of income. #4. Number of children under 16 living at home, and age of the # children. # #Present housing conditions: #1. Combined type of dwelling and household. #2. Number of rooms and number of residents in the dwelling. #3. Installations of the dwelling. #4. Housing expenses. #5. Distance to the institute of education and/or place of work. # #House-hunting and removals from 1 May 1980 to 1 May 1981: #1. Removal or house-hunting in the period (incl. time of removal # or house-hunting). #2. Refusal to an offer of a new dwelling. #3. Reason for removal or house-hunting. #4. Own dwelling or not. # #Satisfaction with present housing conditions: #1. Satisfaction with present dwelling. #2. Reasons for dissatisfaction. # #Wishes as regards dwelling: #1. Housing preferences. #2. Knowledge of types of dwelling. # #Influence of the housing conditions on education and employment: #1. The influence of the presumed or actual lack of housing # on the young person's choice of education or occupation. # #Vocational training, occupation and housing conditions of the parents: #1. Type of dwelling of the parents. #2. Number of residents and number of rooms in the parents' # dwelling. #3. Vocational training and occupational status of the parents. #4. Distance from the parents' dwelling to the institute of # education or place of work at the time of removal. # #The respondent's assessment of the significance of the survey: #1. Whether the respondent agrees/disagrees on a number of # attitudinal questions concerning the significance of such a # survey