Number of people per room

Of the households covered in the low-income household survey, 63 per cent had only one or two rooms in their dwelling with nearly 30 per cent having only one room. The differences between different kinds of household in this respect were not significant.

The mean number of persons per room did not vary significantly between female- and joint-headed types of households. It was marginally lower for male-headed households. In female-headed households, the mean was 2.36 compared with 2.29 for joint- and 1.84 for male-headed households. If the same calculation is done but in terms of adult equivalents rather than simply persons per room the results are as follows:

Yard space

Some 74 per cent of female-headed households shared a yard with other households compared with 64 per cent of male- and 62 per cent of joint-headed households, yet again illustrating the higher levels of sharing experienced by female-headed households. The importance of sharing and the physical structures which promote sharing are well exemplified by the traditional Jamaican tenement yard which has been referred to elsewhere in this study. Its significance is described in the following section.