Overview
Information sources available for Scotland are often too infrequent, insufficiently detailed, or based on too small samples to provide reliable information for Scotland. Thus, in April 1998, Scottish Office Ministers approved the commissioning by the then Scottish Office Development Department of a new large scale survey - The Scottish Household Survey.
The findings from the survey are of interest to a wide audience and provide the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government and other interested parties with accurate, up-to-date information on the impact on households and individuals of key services and policies for which the Parliament is now responsible.
In many areas of the work of the Scottish Government - particularly Social Justice, Transport and Housing - effective evaluation of policy and development of policy advice requires good quality information on the composition, characteristics, attitudes and behaviour of households and individuals at national and sub-national level.
The Scottish Household Survey is intended to meet these needs and the needs for information to support the work of the Scottish Parliament.
The survey commenced in February 1999. Over the first four years it achieved a sample of approximately 62,000 households collected continuously. The contract was extended for another four years (2003-2006 inclusive). Interviews are being carried out in approximately 3,900 households each quarter. The survey is designed so that the interviews from each quarter will provide results which are representative of Scotland as a whole. Statistically reliable results are available for larger local authorities on an annual basis and for all Local Authorities, regardless of size, every 2 years (1999-2000, 2001-2002, 2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008).
Details on the topics included in the survey can be found through our List of Topics.
An information leaflet is distributed to Scottish households selected to take part in the survey. This gives people an overview of some key findings in the survey.
Aims and Objectives
The specific aims of the survey are to:
- provide household and individual information not currently available in Scotland, particularly to support the work of Communities, Transport and Local Government areas and the work of the Scottish Parliament;
- permit disaggregation of such information both geographically and in terms of population sub-groups (such as families with children or the elderly);
- allow the relationships between social variables within households to be examined. This will support cross-departmental and inter-departmental policies such as those on social justice and welfare-to-work;
- allow early detection of national trends;
- allow detailed follow-up surveys of sub-samples from the main survey sample, if required.