In which rooms do Britons endorse fabric flooring, and what do they themselves have?
Looking back from the vantage point of 2025, it is clear that one of the greatest interior decorating crimes of the previous century was having carpeted bathrooms – with some even going so far as to line the bathtub with carpet as well.
Such hygiene hazards are now largely confined to the past, with a new YouGov survey showing that just 4% of Britons say they still have a carpeted bathroom, rising to one in twelve (8%) among over-65s.
Nevertheless, as many as one in eight Britons (13%) deem it acceptable to have carpet in the bathroom, a figure which rises to almost one in five (19%) among 50-64 year olds.
Carpets have retreated across British homes following the growing popularity of laminate flooring from the 1990s onwards, although it is still the most common choice in bedrooms (82%) and living rooms (59%).
On hallways, Britons are split, with 47% saying their hallway is carpeted but 49% saying it is not. And when it comes to dining rooms, the number without carpet (44%) stands higher than the number where carpet is present (25%).
Carpet is rarely seen in the kitchen, although 2% of Britons claim to have furry flooring in their cooking space, including 5% of the over-65s.
Carpeted bedrooms and dining rooms are more fashionable for older Britons
A few generational differences stand out. The oldest Britons – those aged 65 and above – a substantially more likely to have carpet in their living room (75%) than age groups under 65 (53-55%).
Older Britons are also noticeably more likely to have a carpeted dining room, with 41% saying so compared to 17-24% among younger age groups (this trend holds true even when accounting for the fact that younger generations are less likely to have a dining room). Indeed, over-65s are the only group for whom carpeted dining rooms are more common than not (32%).
In terms of being unable to even countenance fabric flooring in a dining room, the youngest generation are noticeably more anti-carpet. Almost a third of under-25s (31%) say that it is unacceptable to have a carpeted floor in your dining room, making this view two to three times more common than it is among older age groups (10-15%).
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Photo: Getty
