Approximately 22,539,000 is the number of households occupied and non occupied in England and Wales in 2012 This means 21,660,000 are occupied, about 20,451,000 in England and 1,209,000 in Wales, the remaining 727,000 are vacant, 676,000 in England and 51,000 in Wales. The ONS study, which lags other major reports by at least a month, is based on Council of Mortgage Lenders mortgage data and puts the average UK home at £234,000 – far higher than the Land Registry’s £163,376 for England and Wales. Around 500,000 people are employed in this sector in the United Kingdom