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Scotland's People Volume 7: results from the 2001/2002 Scottish Household Survey

6. How we live

Introduction

This section focuses on household resources. It looks at ownership of material possessions including motor vehicles and personal computers, and also financial resources of different types. This section also examines health and ill-health, registration with, and use of, GP services and the provision and receipt of childcare and care for the adult population.

Please refer to Section 2 for more information about interpreting the information in the tables in this section.

Household resources

Around two-thirds of households (65%) in Scotland have access to at least one motor vehicle for private use ( Table 6-1). Ninety-five per cent of households with a net income of over 20,000 a year have access to a motor vehicle for private use, compared with only 34% of households with a net annual income of 0 - 6,000 ( Table 6-3).

Households in large urban areas are least likely to have access to a motor vehicle for private use ( Table 6-4). In contrast, households in rural areas are most likely to have access to two or more motor vehicles for private use. Thirty-nine percent of households in accessible rural areas and 33% in remote rural areas, have access to more than one car.

Households in Aberdeenshire, East Dumbartonshire, Shetland and East Renfrewshire are most likely to have access to two or more motor vehicles for private use (39%, 38%, 37%, and 37% respectively). Residents in Glasgow City are most likely not to have access to any motor vehicle for private use (57%) ( Table 6-5).

The majority of households (94%) across Scotland have a telephone, and 42% have a computer/PC ( Table 6-7). This compares with 33% of households that had a computer/PC in 1999/2000.

Amongst the 34% of adults in Scotland who make personal use of the internet, the most common usage was for using e-mail (83%), general browsing or surfing (72%) and finding information about goods/services (69%) ( Table 6-12 and Table 6-25).

Financial resources

Around a third of Scottish households (31%) have a net annual household income of 10,000 or less while a third (33%) have a net annual income of more than 20,000 ( Table 6-29) 10.

Across Scotland as a whole, 54% of households have savings or investments ( Table 6-32) and 87% of households have a bank or building society account (Table 6-42). Forty-six per cent of households perceive themselves to be managing 'very' or 'quite' well financially. Eleven per cent of Scottish households perceive themselves not to be managing well financially, 5% saying they 'don't manage very well', 5% saying they 'have some financial difficulties' and 1% saying they are 'in deep financial trouble' ( Table 6-40).

Health and caring

The majority (55%) of all the adult population described their health as 'good' and around a third (31%) described it as 'fairly good'. However, 14% of all adults described their health as 'not good' ( Table 6-51).

Over a quarter (28%) of adults smoke cigarettes ( Table 6-55). Those aged 25 to 34 are most likely to smoke, with 36% doing so ( Figure 6-1).

Around a fifth (21%) of the adult population registered with a GP or health centre did not see a GP or family doctor about their own health during the previous year. Over a third (34%) had seen a GP or family doctor on only one or two occasions and a further fifth (21%) on three to five occasions. Eleven per cent had seen a GP or family doctor more than 10 times during the past year ( Table 6-61).

Just under a third of all households (31%) contain at least one person with a long-standing limiting illness, health problem or disability ( Table 6-63).

Just over one in 10 (12%) of all households contain someone who needs regular help or care because they are sick, disabled or elderly. Households with at least one person who needs regular help or care because they are sick, disabled or elderly are more prevalent in social rented housing than in other tenure types ( Table 6-74).

Table 6-1: Whether any motor vehicles normally available for private use by sex of highest income householder

Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 6-2: Motor vehicles household normally has available by household type

Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 6-3: Whether any motor vehicles normally available for private use by annual net household income

Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 6-4: Motor vehicles normally available for private use by urban/rural classification

Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 6-5: Motor vehicles household normally has available by local authority

Row percentages, 2001/2002 data, Households

Table 6-6: Households with each consumer durable by household type
Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 6-7: Households with each consumer durable by net annual household income

Column percentages, 2001/2002 data
Households

Table 6-8: Households with each consumer durable by local authority

Row percentages, 2001/2002 data, Households

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