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Scotland's People
Results from the 2003 Scottish Household Survey Annual Report

6 How we live

Introduction

This section focuses on household resources. It looks at ownership of material possessions including cars and personal computers, and financial resources of different types. The 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

Two-thirds of households (67%) have access to at least one car for private use. Over three-quarters of households (78%) where the Highest Income Householder (HIH) is male have access to a car, compared with 50% of households with a female HIH ( Table 6.1). Almost all (98%) of households with a net annual income over 40,000 a year have access to a car for private use, compared with only 36% of households with a net annual income of 6,000 or less ( Table 6.3).

The proportion of households with access to two or more cars has increased since 1999 ( Table 6.6). In 1999, 17.8% of households had access to two or more vehicles, while in 2003, 22.5% of households had access to two or more cars.

Table 6.11 shows drivers' means of making various types of journey. Drivers are most likely to use a car for supermarket shopping (87% always use a car for this) and visiting friends and relatives (72% always use a car for this). The majority of drivers (60%) say they always use a car for town centre shopping.

Around two-fifths (41%) of households have home internet access ( Table 6.20). Of households with a net annual income of over 40,000, 87% have home internet access. This compares with 16% of households with a net annual income of 6,000 or less ( Table 6.22).

Among the adults in Scotland who use the internet, the most common purposes are for using e-mail (85%), general browsing or surfing (72%) and finding information about goods/services (67%) ( Table 6.31).

Financial resources

Almost half of households (49%) have a net annual household income of 15,000 or less. Only 6% of households have a net annual income of more than 40,000 ( Table 6.35) ¹⁰.

Just over half of all households (54%) have savings or investments. Only 21% of single parent households have savings or investments ( Table 6.39). The proportion of households with a bank or building society account has increased slightly since 1999 - 85.8% had an account in 1999 compared with 88.7% in 2003 ( Table 6.47).

Health and caring

Over a quarter (28%) of adults smoke cigarettes - and the same proportion of males and females smoke ( Table 6.54). Those aged 25 to 34 are most likely to smoke, with 34% doing so ( Figure 6-1). Those in Edinburgh are least likely to smoke (22%) and those in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire most likely to smoke (33% in both areas) ( Table 6.56).

Just under a third of all households (32%) contain at least one person with a long-standing limiting illness, health problem or disability ( Table 6.57). The households with the lowest net annual income are most likely to contain someone with a long-standing limiting illness, health problem or disability: 39% of households with a net annual income of 10,000 or less contain such a person compared with 2% of households with a net annual income of over 40,000 ( Table 6.58).

Just over one in 10 (11%) 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 6.69).

Table 6.1: Whether any cars normally available for private use by sex of Highest Income Householder
Column percentages, 2003 data Households

Table 6.2: Cars household normally has available by household type
Column percentages, 2003 data Households

Table 6.3: Whether any cars normally available for private use by net annual household income
Column percentages, 2003 data Households

Table 6.4: Cars normally available for private use by urban/rural classification
Column percentages, 2003 Households

Table 6.5: Cars household normally has available by local authority grouping
Row percentages, 2003 data Households

Table 6.6: Number of cars household normally has available by year
Column percentages, 1999-2003 data Households

Table 6.7: Total expenditure on fuel for cars per month by number of vehicles normally available for private use
Column percentages, Q2,3,4 2003 data Households with access to at least one vehicle

Table 6.8: Total expenditure on fuel for cars per month by urban/rural classification
Column percentages, Q2,3,4 2003 data Households with access to at least one vehicle

Table 6.9: Type of driving licence (if any) held by sex
Column percentages, 2003 data Adult population aged 17 and over

Table 6.10: Type of driving licence (if any) held by age of adult population
Column percentages, 2003 data Adult population aged 17 and over

Table 6.11: Drivers' means of making various types of journey
Row percentages, Q2,3,4 2003 data Adult population with full driving licence who sometimes drive a car

Table 6.12: Drivers who make each type of journey - percentages who always use a car by age
Cell percentages, Q2,3,4 2003 data Adult population with full driving licence who sometimes drive a car/van and who make each type of journey

Table 6.13: Drivers who always make each type of journey by car - percentages who would find it "fairly or very difficult" without a car by urban/rural classification
Cell percentages, Q2,3,4 2003 data Adult population with full driving licence who always make each type of journey by car

Table 6.14: Access to the internet by sex
Column percentages, 2003 data Adult population

Table 6.15: Access to the internet by age
Column percentages, 2003 data Adult population

Table 6.16: Access to the internet by whether have a disability or long-term health problem
Column percentages, Q2,3,4 2003 data Adult population

Table 6.17: Access to the internet by net annual household income
Column percentages, 2003 data Adult population

Table 6.18: Access to the internet by household type
Column percentages, 2003 data Adult population

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