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2 The Composition and Characteristics of Households and Adults in Scotland

INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT

The Scottish Household Survey collects information from the household respondent about all household members including children. This information is used principally for selecting the data of particular groups for further cross-cutting analysis or for use as background variables when analysing other topics. The General Register Office for Scotland ( GROS) uses the SHS to publish household estimates based on SHS data. Such estimates differ from those published here because, unlike the ones presented below, they are weighted using the 2001 Census results to adjust for any bias due to the under or over-sampling of certain household types.

The characteristics of adults and the Highest Income Householder ( HIH) ¹³ are used in this report as variables to examine SHS questions in the chapters that follow. The age and number of people in the household are combined in 'household type', a variable which is used to examine the relationship of household composition with housing tenure ( Chapter 3), financial inclusion ( Chapter 6), availability of cars ( Chapter 8) and health and caring ( Chapter 10).

To set the scene for the subsequent analysis, this chapter briefly presents information on selected characteristics of all household members and of adults. It examines household types and considers the relationship between household type and degree of rurality.

ALL HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS

The gender and age of all household members, including children, are presented in Table 2.1. There are more female (52%) than male (48%) household members. Just under a fifth (19%) of household members is aged under 16, while almost a quarter (24%) is 60 or over.

TABLE 2.1: CHARACTERISTICS OF HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS
Column percentages, 2007 data
All household members

ADULTS IN PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS

Table 2.2 presents the characteristics of adults, based on those selected to take part in the 'random adult' interview. 55% of adults are female and 45% are male. As in previous surveys, younger (16-24) adults are under-represented in the survey compared with population estimates based on the 2001 Census. Those aged 16 to 24 and 75 or over each represent one-tenth (10%) of adults, while those aged 45 to 59 make up just over a quarter (26%) of all adults.

About a half (51%) of adults are married and living with a spouse, while under a quarter (23%) are single and have never been married. The majority of adults (97.9%) are of white ethnic origin with Scottish being the predominant ethnic group (85.2%). The next biggest group is 'other British' (9%). 2.1% of adults are non-white. Adults of Asian ethnic origin represent the biggest non-white group (1.4%). Within that group, 0.5% of adults are Pakistani and 0.4% are Indian.

TABLE 2.2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULTS
Column percentages, 2007 data
Adults

From June 2007 'Married' was changed to 'Married and living with spouse'.
The category 'separated' was missing from the questionnaire until June 2007. This means the percentage shown for 'separated' is slightly reduced.

TABLE 2.2: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ADULTS - CONTINUED
Column percentages, 2007 data
Adults

Asian includes Asian Scottish or Asian British.
Black includes Black Scottish or Black British.
*sub-totals of ethnic groups that follow.

Figure 2.1 examines the relationships between current marital status and adults of different ages. It shows that the predominant marital status for 16-24 year olds is single; 83% are single in that age group. By the time adults reach the age of 25-34, the majority are married (or in a civil partnership) or cohabiting (60% in total), while over a third (37%) remains single. Being single continues to decline until the age group 45-59, after which point around one in ten has never been married.

From the ages of 35 to 74, marriage is the predominant current status. Those aged 75 or over are more often 'widowed' (46%) although four in ten are married.

FIGURE 2.1: CURRENT MARITAL STATUS OF ADULTS BY AGE
2007 data, Adults (base: 12,236)

The data underlying Figure 2.1 are presented in the table below. As well as showing the percentages of each age group who are single, cohabiting, married, etc. ¹⁴ it also shows the percentage of each marital status category who are aged 16-24, 25-34 and so on. ¹⁵Over half (59%) of those who are single are under 35. More than six in ten (61%) of those who are married are aged between 45 and 74 (Table 2.3).

TABLE 2.3: AGE AND MARITAL STATUS OF ADULT POPULATION
Row and column percentages, 2007 data

From June 2007 'Married' was changed to 'Married and living with spouse'.
The category 'separated' was missing from the questionnaire until June 2007. This means the base size including 'separated' includes slightly reduced number of people.

Household Type

Household type is derived from the details collected from the household respondent about all household members, using a combination of age and number of people in the household. Combining the data in this way provides, in effect, an indicator of the life stage and family circumstance of households.

The structure of households, as represented by household type, is illustrated in Figure 2.2 and full definitions are included in the Glossary ( Annex 2). Almost a third of households (32%) in Scotland contain only one adult, split evenly between those of and below pensionable age. Small families without children also account for one-third of households (small adult, older smaller), while just over a quarter (26%) are families with children aged under 16 (single parent, small family, large family).

FIGURE 2.2: HOUSEHOLD TYPE
2007 data, Households (base: 13,414)

Having identified the percentage of households accounted for by different household types Table 2.4 investigates the extent to which household type varies according to degree of rurality, as defined using the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification. ¹⁶In general the differences between different types of area are relatively small.

TABLE 2.4: HOUSEHOLD TYPE BY URBAN/RURAL CLASSIFICATION
Column percentages, 2007 data

Additional tables providing further information on the composition and characteristics of households are available on the SHS website. ¹⁷

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