How Many Emergency Chairs Are Used At Christmas?

The festive period is here, so that means it's time for family and friends to gather together and enjoy each other's company.

However, this can also create a necessity for extra chairs - or emergency chairs as they're affectionately known to many. These come in all shapes and sizes, often beyond the typical set you get around the dining table, when everyone from grandma to your distant cousins seek the comfort only a good sit-down can provide.

As experts in all things dining tables and chairs, this got the team here at The Furniture Market wondering about the finer details surrounding the Christmas emergency chair and its usage around the country. We questioned everything from the average number used, to which family member typically gets the honour of being seated on them, and even which areas of the country are more partial to emergency chairs than others.
To find out, we did the research...

A Detailed Study

In order to source the information that we needed, we decided to ask the Great British public and carried out the first ever Christmas emergency chair census. Despite the wordy title, we managed to get back some rather interesting responses which we've put together in graphical form below.

Our Findings...

As you can see from our first graphic, we can reveal that over four million* emergency chairs will be used in households across the nation this Christmas. It was also confirmed that the vast majority of these will be owned by the family themselves.

When it comes to the number of chairs used, the most popular result, as shown in our next graphic, was two per household. To break this down even more, 8% will use only the one, while 2% will use six or above!

The next aspect to think about, are what seats are being used for these emergency chairs - and indeed who is using them. As it shows below, dining tables are the most common source for additional seating, with garden furniture not far behind. There were a few wildcards thrown into the mix from our survey though, with random barstools and even sofas being moved and repurposed around the dinner table.

Our survey also said that the family members most likely to be shifted onto the emergency chairs were children with nearly 40% of the vote; grandparents fared the best with only 7% having to make the move.

Popular Emergency Chair Locations

Lastly, you might be wondering where some of the highest concentrations of emergency chair users can be found, well wonder no more and see whether the city closest to you makes our top 10.

So, make sure you remember what you've learned from our survey this Christmas and spare a thought this year for those more uncomfortable than you - or at least make sure you have enough dining chairs available to accommodate your guests

Image courtesy of iStock

*Based on ONS figures of 18.9 million families in the UK

The Furniture Market