Number of Rooms/Bedrooms

Requirements

The questionnaire modules for both rooms and bedrooms must obtain an integral number of rooms or bedrooms. The provision of instructions on which spaces in a dwelling should be counted as rooms or bedrooms is critical to ensure the correct and consistent calculation of the number of rooms or bedrooms.

Instructions for calculating rooms should address:

• the inclusion of habitable rooms (inclusions should be listed)
• the exclusion of service areas (exclusions should be listed)
• the treatment of spaces in open–plan dwellings
• the treatment of room equivalents
• the treatment of one–roomed dwellings

Instructions for calculating bedrooms should address:

• the inclusion of rooms which are furnished as bedrooms
• the inclusion of sleepouts when furnished and/or used as bedrooms and occupied by members of the same household as the dwelling
• the inclusion of caravans when used as bedrooms and occupied by members of the same household as the dwelling
• the treatment of room equivalents
• the treatment of rooms used for dual purposes
• In self-completion questionnaires, instructions should ideally be included in the question text, however if space on the questionnaire is limited, the provision of instructions in attached help notes is beneficial.
• In an interview situation the use of prompt cards listing instructions on which spaces in a dwelling should be calculated as rooms or bedrooms is recommended. The interviewer may help the respondent to identify those rooms which should be counted in the data collection and with the permission of the respondent may be able to sight any rooms which are difficult to define and thereby discern their status.
• Only two blank boxes are necessary for recording the number of rooms or bedrooms because (a) the classifications for number of rooms and bedrooms extend only to '20 or more' and '14 or more' respectively, and (b) the majority of private dwellings will have less than 100 rooms or bedrooms.

Example

Rooms

The questionnaire module below is an example that meets the requirements documented in this statistical standard. Other questionnaire modules may vary in format but should conform to the requirements contained in this statistical standard.

Help notes

In an open-plan situation, count rooms such as dining rooms and living rooms in the same way as you would if they had walls between them.

If this is a one-roomed dwelling put 1.

Bedrooms

The questionnaire module below is an example that meets the requirements documented in this statistical standard. Other questionnaire modules may vary in format but should conform to the requirements contained in this statistical standard.

Help notes

If the ONLY bedroom facilities in this dwelling are in a room that is used for another purpose, as, for example, in a bed-sitting room, count this room as a bedroom and put 1.

Count rooms that are furnished as bedrooms. But do not count a room such as a living room that is used as someone’s bedroom at night, either short-term or long-term, unless the ONLY bedroom facilities in this dwelling are in that room.