Children in poor quality housing miss more school

A recent study using CNC has revealed that children living in poor quality homes missed three weeks more of school over the course of compulsory education than their peers in better quality housing. 

What we asked you 

When you were 7 years old, we asked your parents a series of questions about your housing situation and the environment you grew up in. 

At previous surveys, your parents may have given permission to add your school records to the information we have collected about you as part of our surveys. This includes information about your school absences and exam results from age five to 16. 

What the researchers found   

At age 7, one in seven (15%) study members lived in homes with damp, while one in eight (12%) lived in overcrowded homes. 

A team of researchers from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies found that study members in England who had lived in poorer quality housing like this, at age 7, missed more days of compulsory education than those who lived in better homes. On average, they missed 15.5 more days of school. They also had 2%-5% lower scores, on average, in standardised tests in English and maths taken in primary and secondary school.  

Why this research matters 

Dr Gergo Baranyi, the study’s lead author, said: “Our new study indicates that improving housing conditions, especially reducing damp, overcrowding and updating heating systems and energy efficiency can have significant benefits for children’s health and education. Public health and housing policies targeting poorly maintained homes could help to narrow health and educational inequalities. This would particularly benefit disadvantaged pupils’ chances at school as well as their future labour market outcomes, because they are more likely to live in lower quality housing.” 

Read the full research report 

Housing quality and school outcomes in England: a nationally representative linked cohort study by Gergo Baranyi, Katie Harron, Sierra Clark, Emla Fitzsimons was published on the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health website in December 2025.

In the press

These findings were covered in the Metro (print), iNews (print) and TES among others.