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23/08/2010
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) 2009 Annual Report.
The SHS is a survey of households across the whole of Scotland, and is designed to provide reliable and up-to-date information on the composition, characteristics and behaviour of Scottish households and individuals on a range of issues, both nationally and at a sub-national level.
It covers a wide range of key topics including household composition; housing; neighbourhoods and communities; economic activity; finance and childcare; education; transport; internet and broadband; health and caring; local services; volunteering; culture and sport.
Some of the main results from the survey, set out in more detail in the main report, are:
Household composition
Over half (51 per cent) of adults are married and living with a spouse, while 32 per cent are single and have never been married or in a civil partnership.
A third (33 per cent) of households in Scotland contains only one adult.
Housing
Owner occupation is the predominant tenure for most household types (66 per cent of all households), the notable exception being for single parent households (36 per cent) and, to a somewhat lesser extent, single adult households (50 per cent).
The private rented sector has shown small but consistent signs of growth from 5 per cent in 1999 to 10 per cent in 2009, associated with a decline in the social rented sector (from 32 per cent in 1999 to 22 per cent in 2009).
The 15 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland are characterised by high concentrations of social housing, with 53 per cent of households in the social rented sector; compared to 17 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
Almost half (47 per cent) of those who have lived at their current address for less than one year are from the private rented sector. Owner occupied households show more long-term stability in staying at a single address.
Neighbourhoods and communities
93.6 per cent of adults rate their neighbourhood as a very or fairly good place to live. This rating has been consistently high since the first SHS in 1999 but this year's percentage is the highest positive rating reported in that time.
Adults living in rural areas of Scotland are more likely to say their neighbourhood is 'very good' (79 per cent of those living in remote rural areas for example) as compared to those from urban (49 per cent of those in large urban areas). Similarly, adults typically rate their neighbourhoods lower when they live within higher levels of deprivation.
The aspect of neighbourhoods that people who rate their neighbourhood positively like most about their area is a 'sense of community.' 71 per cent of adults say they like the sense of community in their neighbourhood.
Overall prevalence of different types of anti-social behaviour is relatively low. The perceptions of neighbourhood problems represent improvements on last year and at some of the lowest levels ever reported in the SHS. The most commonly perceived problems are litter lying around (26 per cent saying this is very or fairly common in their area), rowdy behaviour (16 per cent), vandalism and other types of deliberate damage to property (14 per cent) and drug misuse or dealing (12 per cent).
Around three fifths of adults say they have not experienced any kind of neighbourhood problems (58 per cent), though this decreases to 47 per cent for those living in the 15 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland.
Three quarters of adults say they feel very or fairly safe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark, with males (85 per cent) more likely to feel safe than females (66 per cent).
Economic activity
69 per cent of adult males and 66 per cent of adult females - of working age - are currently engaged in some form of paid work.
Men of working age are predominantly either employed full-time (55 per cent) or are self-employed (10 per cent). Women's participation in the labour market has increased over recent years, with the majority now in full-time employment (39 per cent) or part-time employment (23 per cent).
Those who have attained degree level or professional qualifications have the highest level of full-time employment (59 per cent), with just under a third (32 per cent) of those with no qualifications in full-time employment.
51 per cent of households in the 15 per cent most deprived areas include no adults in paid employment, compared with 37 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
Finance and childcare
Throughout 2009, there is a suggestion that people are beginning to feel more positively about their household finances, with an increase of two percentage points over the year for those saying they are managing 'quite well' or 'very well' (49 per cent).
Just under a third (31 per cent) of single parent households say they are not managing well financially, compared with around one-in-ten households across all household types.
One quarter of households did not having any savings or investments in 2009, with almost one-in-five households (18 per cent) having less than 1,000 pounds savings.
Just over a third (35 per cent) of single parent households have savings and investments compared with over half from all other household types.
Education
Just under a quarter (23 per cent) of adults have no qualifications, with very little difference between males and females.
Levels of satisfaction of schooling amongst parents are high, with over nine in ten (92 per cent) of all parents with school aged children satisfied with the education provided by their child's school.
Satisfaction parents have with schooling decreases as the age of the school child increases, decreasing from 95 per cent for those aged 4 to 6 down to 88 per cent for those aged 13 and above.
Transport and travel
The percentage of adults travelling to work by car has increased slightly from 66 per cent in 2008 to 67 per cent in 2009. This measurement is the basis of the Government's national performance indicator on journeys to work by public or active transport.
Over half of children (51 per cent) usually walk or cycle to school. Around one quarter of children (24 per cent) travel to school by car or van, fairly unaffected by distance between home and school other than for those travelling 0.6 kilometres or less (90 per cent walk or cycle).
69 per cent of households have a car available for private use: 43 per cent in the 15 per cent most deprived areas compared with 74 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
There has been a general increasing trend of households with access to a larger number of cars, with those with access to two cars increasing from 15 per cent in 1999 through to 21 per cent in 2009.
Just over two thirds (68 per cent) of adults hold a full driving licence, with a higher proportion of males (76 per cent) compared to females (61 per cent).
Internet
Overall, 29 per cent of adults do not use the Internet at all which is a slight decrease from the 2007/2008 reported figures of 33 per cent.
There is a clear relationship between age and use of the Internet, with use declining as respondents get older. Similarly, women are more likely than men to be non-users (31 per cent and 27 per cent respectively).
Overall, two-thirds of Scottish households report having home Internet access in 2009. Home Internet access increases with net annual household income, from 34 per cent for those with income less than 10,000 pounds up to 97 per cent of those with an income greater than 40,000 pounds.
51 per cent of households in the 15 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland have home Internet access compared to 68 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
Almost two thirds (63 per cent) of all households in Scotland report having a broadband Internet connection. This varies from around one third of households with incomes of 10,000 pounds or less to 95 per cent of those with incomes of over 40,000 pounds.
Health and caring
Just over 24 per cent of adults smoked in 2009. Since its introduction in 1999 the SHS has charted a general downwards trend in the proportion of adults who smoke. The 2009 proportion is a 5.5 percentage point reduction on 1999. The percentage of adults who smoke is one of the Government's national performance indicators, with the aim of reducing the percentage of the adult population who smoke to 22 per cent by 2010.
Typically, more men than women smoke (26 per cent and 23 per cent respectively). Younger men more commonly smoke than younger women, with the gap widest (eight percentage points) between the ages of 25 and 34 years.
Adults in the 15 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland are considerably more likely than those in the rest of Scotland to say that they are current smokers (41 per cent and 21 per cent respectively).
Three quarters of adults (75 per cent) say their own health is either 'very good' or 'good', compared to 7 per cent of those saying it is 'bad' or 'very bad'.
Those adults who live in the social rented sector are more likely to say their health in general has been bad (14 per cent) as compared to those from owner occupied households or the private rented sector (around 5 per cent).
Around a third of households in Scotland (32 per cent) contain at least one person with a long-standing illness, health problem or disability.
While 13 per cent of all households contain at least one person who requires regular help or care, one in four single pensioners (26 per cent) and one in five older smaller households (22 per cent) have care needs Local services.
65 per cent of adults are satisfied with local health services, local schools and public transport (as a composite measure). This data forms the basis of the Government's national performance indicator on perceptions of public services. This represents an increase of over five percentage points on the 2007/2008 figure of around 59 per cent.
86 per cent of adults are very or fairly satisfied with local health services; 83 per cent very or fairly satisfied with local schools and 75 per cent very or fairly satisfied with public transport.
Almost half (49 per cent) of adults say their council is good at letting people know about the kinds of services it provides, whilst 43 per cent say that it is providing high quality services. Generally speaking, older adults are likely to be more satisfied with the performance statements about local government services than younger adults.
88 per cent of households have recycled some paper (including newspaper, magazines and cardboard), glass jars and bottles, metal cans or plastic bottles in the past month.
The percentage of households recycling at least some of the different types of waste has increased considerably since 2003, and continues to increase year-on-year. 71 per cent of households recycled plastics bottles in 2009, 6 percentage points more than in 2008 and up from 12 per cent in 2003.
Recycling of these items is related to the type of property in which households live, reflecting the differing availability of recycling services to residents in different types of property. For example, 94 per cent of households living in a house or bungalow recycle one or more of these items compared with 57 per cent for those living in high rise flats.
Almost seven in ten adults (68 per cent) in Scotland have access to a park, greenspace or other area of grass in their neighbourhood that they and their family can use that is safe and pleasant.
Nearly one-in-ten of all adults use such council run parks or open spaces most days, whilst one-in-five of all adults have never used such greenspace. Two-thirds of adults are satisfied with council run parks and open spaces, with less than one in ten (7 per cent) being dissatisfied.
Volunteering
Around three-in-ten adults (28 per cent) have provided unpaid help to organisations or individuals in the last 12 months.
Unpaid help is most likely to be provided by those who are self-employed (37 per cent) and those in higher or further education (36 per cent).
Working with organisations connected to children, either through schools (22 per cent) or other youth and children's organisations (22 per cent) are the most common form of volunteering.
Culture and sport
Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) have participated in cultural activities in the last 12 months. Participation in many of the cultural activities declines with age. 63 per cent of adults read for pleasure as their main form of participation in cultural activities.
74 per cent of adults attended cultural events or visited cultural places in the last 12 months. Again, non-attendance increases with age. Viewing a film at a cinema or other venue is the most common; just over half (53 per cent) have done this in the last 12 months.
72 per cent of adults participated in sport (including recreational walking) in the last four weeks. Participation was higher among men (56 per cent) than women (45 per cent) and declined with age.
An associated publication, Main Transport Trends 2010, is also being published. This includes a summary of a range of transport statistics in Scotland to present main trends, including some comparisons with Great Britain (or the UK).
National statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) 2009 Annual Report.
The SHS is a survey of households across the whole of Scotland, and is designed to provide reliable and up-to-date information on the composition, characteristics and behaviour of Scottish households and individuals on a range of issues, both nationally and at a sub-national level.
It covers a wide range of key topics including household composition; housing; neighbourhoods and communities; economic activity; finance and childcare; education; transport; internet and broadband; health and caring; local services; volunteering; culture and sport.
Some of the main results from the survey, set out in more detail in the main report, are:
Household composition
Over half (51 per cent) of adults are married and living with a spouse, while 32 per cent are single and have never been married or in a civil partnership.
A third (33 per cent) of households in Scotland contains only one adult.
Housing
Owner occupation is the predominant tenure for most household types (66 per cent of all households), the notable exception being for single parent households (36 per cent) and, to a somewhat lesser extent, single adult households (50 per cent).
The private rented sector has shown small but consistent signs of growth from 5 per cent in 1999 to 10 per cent in 2009, associated with a decline in the social rented sector (from 32 per cent in 1999 to 22 per cent in 2009).
The 15 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland are characterised by high concentrations of social housing, with 53 per cent of households in the social rented sector; compared to 17 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
Almost half (47 per cent) of those who have lived at their current address for less than one year are from the private rented sector. Owner occupied households show more long-term stability in staying at a single address.
Neighbourhoods and communities
93.6 per cent of adults rate their neighbourhood as a very or fairly good place to live. This rating has been consistently high since the first SHS in 1999 but this year's percentage is the highest positive rating reported in that time.
Adults living in rural areas of Scotland are more likely to say their neighbourhood is 'very good' (79 per cent of those living in remote rural areas for example) as compared to those from urban (49 per cent of those in large urban areas). Similarly, adults typically rate their neighbourhoods lower when they live within higher levels of deprivation.
The aspect of neighbourhoods that people who rate their neighbourhood positively like most about their area is a 'sense of community.' 71 per cent of adults say they like the sense of community in their neighbourhood.
Overall prevalence of different types of anti-social behaviour is relatively low. The perceptions of neighbourhood problems represent improvements on last year and at some of the lowest levels ever reported in the SHS. The most commonly perceived problems are litter lying around (26 per cent saying this is very or fairly common in their area), rowdy behaviour (16 per cent), vandalism and other types of deliberate damage to property (14 per cent) and drug misuse or dealing (12 per cent).
Around three fifths of adults say they have not experienced any kind of neighbourhood problems (58 per cent), though this decreases to 47 per cent for those living in the 15 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland.
Three quarters of adults say they feel very or fairly safe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark, with males (85 per cent) more likely to feel safe than females (66 per cent).
Economic activity
69 per cent of adult males and 66 per cent of adult females - of working age - are currently engaged in some form of paid work.
Men of working age are predominantly either employed full-time (55 per cent) or are self-employed (10 per cent). Women's participation in the labour market has increased over recent years, with the majority now in full-time employment (39 per cent) or part-time employment (23 per cent).
Those who have attained degree level or professional qualifications have the highest level of full-time employment (59 per cent), with just under a third (32 per cent) of those with no qualifications in full-time employment.
51 per cent of households in the 15 per cent most deprived areas include no adults in paid employment, compared with 37 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
Finance and childcare
Throughout 2009, there is a suggestion that people are beginning to feel more positively about their household finances, with an increase of two percentage points over the year for those saying they are managing 'quite well' or 'very well' (49 per cent).
Just under a third (31 per cent) of single parent households say they are not managing well financially, compared with around one-in-ten households across all household types.
One quarter of households did not having any savings or investments in 2009, with almost one-in-five households (18 per cent) having less than 1,000 pounds savings.
Just over a third (35 per cent) of single parent households have savings and investments compared with over half from all other household types.
Education
Just under a quarter (23 per cent) of adults have no qualifications, with very little difference between males and females.
Levels of satisfaction of schooling amongst parents are high, with over nine in ten (92 per cent) of all parents with school aged children satisfied with the education provided by their child's school.
Satisfaction parents have with schooling decreases as the age of the school child increases, decreasing from 95 per cent for those aged 4 to 6 down to 88 per cent for those aged 13 and above.
Transport and travel
The percentage of adults travelling to work by car has increased slightly from 66 per cent in 2008 to 67 per cent in 2009. This measurement is the basis of the Government's national performance indicator on journeys to work by public or active transport.
Over half of children (51 per cent) usually walk or cycle to school. Around one quarter of children (24 per cent) travel to school by car or van, fairly unaffected by distance between home and school other than for those travelling 0.6 kilometres or less (90 per cent walk or cycle).
69 per cent of households have a car available for private use: 43 per cent in the 15 per cent most deprived areas compared with 74 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
There has been a general increasing trend of households with access to a larger number of cars, with those with access to two cars increasing from 15 per cent in 1999 through to 21 per cent in 2009.
Just over two thirds (68 per cent) of adults hold a full driving licence, with a higher proportion of males (76 per cent) compared to females (61 per cent).
Internet
Overall, 29 per cent of adults do not use the Internet at all which is a slight decrease from the 2007/2008 reported figures of 33 per cent.
There is a clear relationship between age and use of the Internet, with use declining as respondents get older. Similarly, women are more likely than men to be non-users (31 per cent and 27 per cent respectively).
Overall, two-thirds of Scottish households report having home Internet access in 2009. Home Internet access increases with net annual household income, from 34 per cent for those with income less than 10,000 pounds up to 97 per cent of those with an income greater than 40,000 pounds.
51 per cent of households in the 15 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland have home Internet access compared to 68 per cent in the rest of Scotland.
Almost two thirds (63 per cent) of all households in Scotland report having a broadband Internet connection. This varies from around one third of households with incomes of 10,000 pounds or less to 95 per cent of those with incomes of over 40,000 pounds.
Health and caring
Just over 24 per cent of adults smoked in 2009. Since its introduction in 1999 the SHS has charted a general downwards trend in the proportion of adults who smoke. The 2009 proportion is a 5.5 percentage point reduction on 1999. The percentage of adults who smoke is one of the Government's national performance indicators, with the aim of reducing the percentage of the adult population who smoke to 22 per cent by 2010.
Typically, more men than women smoke (26 per cent and 23 per cent respectively). Younger men more commonly smoke than younger women, with the gap widest (eight percentage points) between the ages of 25 and 34 years.
Adults in the 15 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland are considerably more likely than those in the rest of Scotland to say that they are current smokers (41 per cent and 21 per cent respectively).
Three quarters of adults (75 per cent) say their own health is either 'very good' or 'good', compared to 7 per cent of those saying it is 'bad' or 'very bad'.
Those adults who live in the social rented sector are more likely to say their health in general has been bad (14 per cent) as compared to those from owner occupied households or the private rented sector (around 5 per cent).
Around a third of households in Scotland (32 per cent) contain at least one person with a long-standing illness, health problem or disability.
While 13 per cent of all households contain at least one person who requires regular help or care, one in four single pensioners (26 per cent) and one in five older smaller households (22 per cent) have care needs Local services.
65 per cent of adults are satisfied with local health services, local schools and public transport (as a composite measure). This data forms the basis of the Government's national performance indicator on perceptions of public services. This represents an increase of over five percentage points on the 2007/2008 figure of around 59 per cent.
86 per cent of adults are very or fairly satisfied with local health services; 83 per cent very or fairly satisfied with local schools and 75 per cent very or fairly satisfied with public transport.
Almost half (49 per cent) of adults say their council is good at letting people know about the kinds of services it provides, whilst 43 per cent say that it is providing high quality services. Generally speaking, older adults are likely to be more satisfied with the performance statements about local government services than younger adults.
88 per cent of households have recycled some paper (including newspaper, magazines and cardboard), glass jars and bottles, metal cans or plastic bottles in the past month.
The percentage of households recycling at least some of the different types of waste has increased considerably since 2003, and continues to increase year-on-year. 71 per cent of households recycled plastics bottles in 2009, 6 percentage points more than in 2008 and up from 12 per cent in 2003.
Recycling of these items is related to the type of property in which households live, reflecting the differing availability of recycling services to residents in different types of property. For example, 94 per cent of households living in a house or bungalow recycle one or more of these items compared with 57 per cent for those living in high rise flats.
Almost seven in ten adults (68 per cent) in Scotland have access to a park, greenspace or other area of grass in their neighbourhood that they and their family can use that is safe and pleasant.
Nearly one-in-ten of all adults use such council run parks or open spaces most days, whilst one-in-five of all adults have never used such greenspace. Two-thirds of adults are satisfied with council run parks and open spaces, with less than one in ten (7 per cent) being dissatisfied.
Volunteering
Around three-in-ten adults (28 per cent) have provided unpaid help to organisations or individuals in the last 12 months.
Unpaid help is most likely to be provided by those who are self-employed (37 per cent) and those in higher or further education (36 per cent).
Working with organisations connected to children, either through schools (22 per cent) or other youth and children's organisations (22 per cent) are the most common form of volunteering.
Culture and sport
Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) have participated in cultural activities in the last 12 months. Participation in many of the cultural activities declines with age. 63 per cent of adults read for pleasure as their main form of participation in cultural activities.
74 per cent of adults attended cultural events or visited cultural places in the last 12 months. Again, non-attendance increases with age. Viewing a film at a cinema or other venue is the most common; just over half (53 per cent) have done this in the last 12 months.
72 per cent of adults participated in sport (including recreational walking) in the last four weeks. Participation was higher among men (56 per cent) than women (45 per cent) and declined with age.
An associated publication, Main Transport Trends 2010, is also being published. This includes a summary of a range of transport statistics in Scotland to present main trends, including some comparisons with Great Britain (or the UK).
National statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.
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