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

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

7 Our communities

Introduction

This section examines different elements of community life including voluntary activity, views about the convenience of shops and other services, voting behaviour, use of recycling facilities and religion. Please refer to Section 2 for more information about interpreting the information in the tables in this section.

Volunteering

Just under a quarter of adults (24%) say that they gave up time in the previous 12 months to help as a volunteer for a charity, club, campaign or organisation ( Table 7.1). Rates of voluntary activity vary by age, sex, economic status, income and area type ( Table 7.1 to Table 7.5 and Figure 7-1).

Over 30% of those who are self-employed or working part-time volunteer while only 13% of unemployed people do ( Table 7.2). Also, while only 18% of young adults aged 16-24 volunteer, 27% of young adults at school do ( Figure 7-1 and Table 7.2).

For example, 37% of adults in households with a net annual income of over 40,000 volunteer compared with 16% of those in households with an income of less than 6,000 ( Table 7.3).

Rates of volunteering are highest in remote rural areas (37%) and lowest in other urban areas (20%) ( Table 7.4). Those in the Highlands and Islands and in Southern Scotland were most likely to volunteer (31% in both areas) ( Table 7.5).

Voting behaviour

Table 7.12 to Table 7.15 show the percentage of people saying whether or not they voted in the Local Council Elections and the Scottish Parliament Elections in May 2003. Sixty four per cent of all adults say that they did vote in each election. However, official turn-out figures suggest that the actual percentage of people that voted was 49% indicating an element of over-reporting on behalf of SHS respondents. Over-reporting of voting behaviour is common among surveys.

Table 7.15 shows considerable variation by age, with just 35% of those aged 18 to 24 years saying they voted in the elections compared with 79% of those aged 60 years or over.

Convenience of services

Overall, the majority of adults find services convenient to use, but there are variations in perceptions of convenience across sub-groups in the sample ( Table 7.16 to Table 7.19).

Those with access to a car are far less likely to say public transport is convenient (76%) compared to those without (90%). Most other services were more commonly found convenient by those with access to a car, than those without ( Table 7.17).

Area type impacts on perceptions of convenience of services, with lower proportions of those in rural areas perceiving services as convenient ( Table 7.18).

Recycling facilities

2003 data shows that 55% of all households had recycled at least some glass, paper, metal or plastic in the past month ( Table 7.20). Households are most likely to recycle paper (45%) and glass (35%) and least likely to recycle metal cans (14%) and plastic (13%). It should be noted that this data is not comparable to previous reports as the SHS now asks about recycling within households rather than among adults. Time series comparisons are therefore not possible.

Households without access to a motor vehicle are less likely to have recycled items in the past month than those with access to a motor vehicle ( Table 7.21).

The main reasons given for not recycling are there being no facilities available (38%), never having thought about recycling (19%) and facilities being too far away (16%) ( Table 7.24).

Religion

Table 7.26 shows the religious affiliation of the adult population by age. The most common affiliation is with the Church of Scotland, with just under half (44%) of all adults being of that faith. Fifteen percent of adults are Roman Catholics, 8% class themselves as belonging to other Christian denominations and 2% of adults belong to other religions. Overall, 31% of all adults have no religious affiliation although this varies by age, with younger adults being more likely to have no religious affiliation.

In couple households, both partners tend to have the same religious affiliation. Table 7.29 shows that where the Highest Income Householder is identified as having no religious affiliation, their spouse or partner is also identified as having no religious affiliation in the majority of cases.

Table 7.1: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by sex
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population

	Male	Female	All
Yes	22	25	24
No	78	75	76
Total	100	100	100
Base	5,941	7,984	13,925

Figure 7-1: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by age and sex

chart

Table 7.2: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by economic activity
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population

	Self employed	Full time employment	Part time employment	Looking after home/family	Permanently retired from work	Unemployed and seeking work	At school	Higher/further education	Government work/training scheme	Permanently sick or disabled	Unable to work due to short term ill-health	Other	All
Yes	33	24	31	23	22	13	27	23	*	17	20	*	24
No	67	76	69	77	78	87	73	77	*	83	80	*	76
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	*	100	100	*	100
Base	645	4,612	1,404	1,045	4,273	492	115	399	20	719	135	66	13,925

*Percentages not shown as sample size is less than 100.

Table 7.3: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by net annual household income
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population

	0 - 6,000	6,001 - 10,000	10,001 - 15,000	15,001 -20,000	20,001 - 25,000	25,001 - 30,000	30,001 - 40,000	Over 40,000	All (income known)
Yes	16	17	18	23	27	27	32	37	24
No	84	83	82	77	73	73	68	63	76
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	1,193	2,724	2,827	1,974	1,504	1,145	1,299	780	13,446

Table 7.4: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by urban/rural classification
Column percentage, 2003 data
Adult population

	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Yes	23	20	25	24	30	37	24
No	77	80	75	76	70	63	76
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	4,968	3,926	1,433	667	1,687	1,244	13,925

Table 7.5: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by local authority grouping
Row percentages, 2003 data
Adult population

	Yes	No	Total	Base
Edinburgh	25	75	100	1,090
Glasgow	24	76	100	1,487
Fife	22	78	100	939
North Lanarkshire	18	82	100	796
South Lanarkshire	22	78	100	751
Highlands and Islands	31	69	100	1,946
Grampian	26	74	100	1,088
Tayside	24	76	100	990
Central	21	79	100	869
Dunbartonshire	24	76	100	454
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde	21	79	100	1,002
Ayrshire	20	80	100	906
Lothians	22	78	100	898
Southern Scotland	31	69	100	709
Scotland	24	76	100	13,925

Table 7.6: Whether gave up time to help as an organiser/volunteer in the past 12 months by year
Column percentages, 2000-2003 data
Adult population

	2000	2001	2002	2003
Yes	26	25	27	24
No	73	75	73	76
Total	100	100	100	100
Base	14,554	14,635	14,032	13,925

Table 7.7: Types of organisations or groups which adults volunteer for by sex
Column percentage, 2003 data
Adult population who volunteer

	Male	Female	All
Sports activities	29	10	18
Church/religious activities	12	17	15
Activities or organisations working with young people	12	15	14
Working in the area of health (hospices/hospitals/clinics/projects etc.)	7	12	10
Working with people with disabilities	8	9	9
Working with older people	7	7	7
Arts, culture	6	8	7
Playgroups or other children's activities	3	9	7
Working with vulnerable people	3	4	4
Parent/Teacher Association	2	4	3
Working in support of the environment	2	2	2
Providing adult education	2	1	1
Working with animals	1	2	2
Professional societies or associations	3	1	2
School board	1	1	1
Community Council	2	2	2
Residents/tenants groups or organisation	2	1	2
Tackling social inclusion/poverty (member of research panel/Social Inclusion Partnership projects etc.)	1	1	1
Political party	1	1	1
Providing advice eg Citizens Advice	1	0	1
Community safety (Victim Support/Neigbourhood Watch etc.)	1	1	1
Local economic/employment initiatives (credit unions/food co-ops etc.)	0	0	0
Promoting equal opportunities (race/gender/disability etc.)	0	0	0
Trade Union	0	0	0
Other	14	14	14
Base	1,260	2,004	3,264

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.

Table 7.8: Type of voluntary work undertaken by sex
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population who volunteer

	Male	Female	Total
Provide some kind of service	65	64	64
Fundraising	34	45	40
Management committee	30	20	24
Help with administration	21	17	18
Help with campaigning	11	9	10
Other	4	2	3
Base	1,268	2,012	3,280

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed.

Table 7.9: Number of hours spent volunteering in the previous 4 weeks by sex
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population who volunteer

	Male	Female	All
Up to 5 hours	50	59	55
6 to 10 hours	17	16	17
11 to 15 hours	7	7	7
16 to 20 hours	11	7	9
21 to 35 hours	7	6	6
36 hours or more	8	5	6
Total	100	100	100
Base	1,268	2,012	3,280

Table 7.10: Number of hours spent volunteering in the previous 4 weeks by age
Column percentage, 2003 data
Adult population who volunteer

	16 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Up to 5 hours	50	63	60	58	45	49	55
6 to 10 hours	17	15	17	16	18	17	17
11 to 15 hours	5	7	4	8	9	10	7
16 to 20 hours	15	9	9	7	9	13	9
21 to 35 hours	5	4	6	5	10	5	6
36 hours or more	7	3	4	6	10	5	6
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	197	455	742	875	800	211	3,280

Table 7.11: Percentage finding services convenient by sex
Column percentage, 2003 data
Adult population

	Male	Female	All
Post Office	92	91	91
Bank	78	76	77
Doctors	84	83	83
Grocery/food shop	94	92	93
Chemists	90	89	90
Outpatients	60	57	58
Public transport	78	80	79
Base	5,752	7,679	13,431

Table 7.12: Whether voted in the local council election of May 2003 by sex
Column percentage, May to Sept 2003 data
Adult population

	Male	Female	All
Yes	62	65	64
No (including too young/not registered)	37	34	35
Refused	1	0	0
Total	100	100	100
Base	2,522	3,461	5,983

Table 7.13: Whether voted in the local council election of May 2003 by age
Column percentages, May-Sept 2003 data
Adult population

	18 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Yes	35	43	61	69	79	79	64
No (including too young/not registered)	65	56	38	30	20	19	35
Refused	-	1	0	0	1	1	0
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	415	882	1,171	1,402	1,347	766	5,983

Table 7.14: Whether voted in the Scottish Parliament election of May 2003 by sex
Column percentage, May-Sept 2003 data
Adult population

	Male	Female	All
Yes	62	65	64
No (including too young/not registered)	37	34	35
Refused	1	0	0
Total	100	100	100
Base	2,522	3,461	5,983

Table 7.15: Whether voted in the Scottish Parliament election of May 2003 by age
Column percentage, May-Sept 2003 data
Adult population

	18 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Yes	35	44	61	69	79	79	64
No (including too young/not registered)	65	55	38	30	20	20	35
Refused	-	1	0	0	1	1	0
Don't know/can't remember	-	0	1	0	0	1	0
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	415	882	1,171	1,402	1,347	766	5,983

Table 7.16: Percentage finding services very or fairly convenient by net annual household income
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population

	0 - 6,000	6,001 - 10,000	10,001 - 15,000	15,001 -20,000	20,001 - 25,000	25,001 - 30,000	30,001 - 40,000	Over 40,000	All (income known)
Post Office	93	93	93	92	93	89	89	89	92
Bank	75	75	77	77	79	77	78	79	77
Doctors	83	81	82	83	85	85	84	84	83
Grocery/food shop	92	93	93	93	94	94	93	93	93
Chemists	89	89	90	90	91	91	88	89	90
Outpatients	56	55	55	59	60	60	60	57	58
Public transport	85	85	83	79	77	75	74	71	79
Base	1,133	2,616	2,732	1,910	1,465	1,120	1,254	760	12,990

Table 7.17: Percentage finding services very or fairly convenient by access to a car
Column percentage, 2003 data
Adult population

	Access to a car	No access to a car	All
Post Office	91	91	91
Bank	79	72	77
Doctors	85	78	83
Grocery/food shop	94	91	93
Chemists	90	88	90
Outpatients	60	51	58
Public transport	76	90	79
Base	9,087	4,344	13,431

Table 7.18: Percentage finding services very or fairly convenient by urban/rural classification
Column percentages, 2003 data
Adult population

	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Post Office	91	90	95	97	92	93	91
Bank	76	79	83	88	70	73	77
Doctors	81	84	89	92	81	86	83
Grocery/food shop	93	94	95	97	89	89	93
Chemists	91	92	95	96	79	75	90
Outpatients	57	64	55	68	54	46	58
Public transport	89	82	76	68	56	51	79
Base	4,889	3,829	1,401	648	1,557	1,107	13,431

Table 7.19: Percentage finding services very or fairly convenient by local authority grouping
Row percentage, 2003 data
Adult population

	Post Office	Bank	Doctors	Grocery/ food shop	Chemists	Outpatients	Public transport	Base
Edinburgh	90	76	82	93	92	35	87	1,083
Glasgow	91	71	81	91	91	69	90	1,455
Fife	89	76	82	91	92	60	80	916
North Lanarkshire	95	79	83	94	89	55	87	779
South Lanarkshire	89	80	84	93	90	48	75	730
Highlands and Islands	94	80	87	93	83	59	66	1,816
Grampian	91	79	82	93	90	61	71	1,050
Tayside	93	81	82	95	91	58	78	936
Central	93	78	86	93	90	65	76	841
Dunbartonshire	87	74	80	93	87	54	82	439
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde	90	75	81	93	90	56	90	968
Ayrshire	92	74	83	94	90	67	80	883
Lothians	92	77	88	95	90	56	79	871
Southern Scotland	93	85	88	93	87	66	56	664
Scotland	91	77	83	93	90	58	79	13,431

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