Scotland’s ageing population has driven up the number of Scottish households who own their home mortgage-free, according to new statistics from the 2022 Census.

In the latest census report, 851,100 of Scottish households owned their homes outright — up 28.8% on the 2011 figure.

Around two thirds of householders aged 65 and over were living mortgage-free.

National Records of Scotland Director of Census Statistics Jon Wroth-Smith said: “With the passing of time, many of today’s over 65s will have had the opportunity to pay off their mortgage.

“We see this in today’s figures which show that more households in Scotland are mortgage-free than a decade ago.”

The census, however, did not show a major change in the number of younger people owning their home.

The report on housing also showed that although the number of older people in Scotland increased, the number of people living in care homes has fallen by 14.5% to 30,800.

This decrease may be explained by the Scottish Government moving towards supporting older people to live independently at home.

The statistics showed an increase in people renting privately — up 9.5% to 323,000 households.

There was a small decrease in households in social rented accommodation. The report noted that the census counts households and not housing stock, some of which may have been vacant at the time of the count.

Data on housing stocks showed that the supply of social sector housing increased between 2011 and 2022.

More than 70% of households lived in homes with at least one more bedroom than required.

About 32.2% of households had at least two more bedrooms than required.

The number of people in student accommodation or halls of residence increased by 68% — up 22,600. This is in line with rising numbers of people studying in Scotland.