The Scottish Government

This chart show the number of individuals living in low income poverty in Scotland. The data are the same as presented in the Scottish Households Below Average Income National Statistics Publication available here.

The proportion of individuals living in low income poverty before housing costs is one of the Scottish Government's National Indicators. For more information about the Government's performance framework and other National Indicators, click here.

Please see the methodology section for more detailed explanations, but essentially, individuals are defined as living in low income if their equivalised net disposable household income is below 60% of the overall median.

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Relative low income poverty

Relative low income poverty is defined as individuals who are living in households whose equivalised income is below 60% of the UK median income in the same year.

The chart shows that:

• The number of individuals in low income households before housing costs fell to 840,000 in 2006/07. This is the lowest number of people in poverty since the Family Resources Survey began.
• The decrease has been predominantly due to a reduction in child poverty.

As well as providing figures on the number of people in low-income poverty, the Households Below Average Income datasets can be used to analyse the number of people who are in poverty even though they work or they live with somebody else who works.

For more information about the labour market and wages in Scotland, click here.

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The chart shows that:

• In 2006/07, 280,000 individuals lived in households in which at least one adult was in paid employment. This is a significant fall from the previous year when 330,000 individuals lived in in-work poverty.

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• Of the 210,000 children living in relative low-income poverty before housing costs in 2006/07, 90,000 (42%) lived in households in which at least one adult was in paid employment.

The chart below shows the number of people living in low-income households with at least one disabled adult.

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The data show that 23% of people who live in a household with at least one disabled adult are in relative poverty before housing costs compared to 15% of people who do not live with a disabled adult.

Disability is self-reported by adults as part of the Family Resources Survey.

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The chart to the right breaks down the percentage of people in relative poverty (before housing costs) by urban and rural areas.

• In 2006/07 seventeen percent of people in urban areas were in relative poverty (before housing costs). In rural areas this figure was fifteen percent.
• Other measures of relative and absolute poverty before and after housing costs, show that income poverty is slightly less prevelant in rural areas than in urban areas.
• These figure also suggest that since 2005/06 the percentage of people in poverty in rural areas has reduced slightly while in urban areas there has been little change.

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The chart to the right breaks down the percentage of people in relative poverty (before housing costs) by whether or not they are living in an area which is defined as 'deprived' according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (The most common measure of deprivation is whether an area is among the fifteen percent most deprived nationally).

• Perhaps unsuprisingly, poverty is much more prevelant in these 'deprived' areas than in the rest of Scotland.
• In 2006/07 twenty-nine percent of people living in the fifteen percent most deprived areas were in relative poverty (before housing costs). In the rest of the country the figure was fifteen percent.
• Other measures of relative and absolute poverty also show this difference.
• There has been little change since 2005/06 in these figures.

The following two charts show the household income distribution for Scotland. The distributions are based on equivalised net disposable household income both before (first chart) and after housing costs (the second chart).

The charts show the number of households by £20 weekly income bands from £0-£20 per week to £1,000 and over per week. The solid area represents the distribution in 1998/99, the purple line represents the distribution in 2006/07. The two vertical black lines represent the median income for each of these years (1998/99 on the left and 2006/07 on the right). All figures are inflated to 2006/07 prices.

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Before housing costs

• The median equivalised income in Scotland in 2006/07 was £369 per week.
• The right hand vertical bar shows the median income in 2006/07 and the left hand bar shows the median in 1998/99.
• In 2006/07 the income band with the highest numbers of households was £260 to £280 per week.
• The high peak of households below the overall median seen in 1998/99 is much less pronounced in 2006/07. The data suggest these households have shifted and spread across the higher income bands.
• In 2006/07 there are far fewer households with weekly incomes of between £100 and £200 than there was in 1998/99.

After housing costs

• Comparing this chart with the one above shows that, overall, income after housing costs is lower than income before housing costs.

• The right hand vertical bar shows the median income in 2006/07 and the left hand bar shows the median in 1998/99.

• The median equivalised income in 2006/07 after housing costs was £321 per week.

• There were two income bands with the highest number of households in: £220-240 and £300-320.

• Note that all data are presented in 2006/07 prices.

The following chart shows median household income trends for Scotland. The trends are based on equivalised net disposable household income both before and after housing costs.

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Note that all figures are inflated to 2006/07 prices.

The trends between 1994/95 and 2006/07 show a steady real terms increase in incomes both before and after housing costs, although there was a small drop in the past year.

The median is accepted as a better measure of central tendancy than the mean for income data due the highly skewed nature of the distribution: a few people with very high incomes have a large effect on the mean but little effect on the median.

This chart shows income source, for example income from employment, self-employment, investments, pensions, benefits etc, by total household income band.

The coloured bars represent the different sources of income and their size represents their contribution (in percent) to the overall income for households within the band.

The bands range from the lowest income households (band £0 to £60) in £60 steps up to the highest income households (£1,980 per week or more).

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• The chart illustrates that the majority of household income in the higher income bands comes from employment and self-employment.
• In the lowest income bands there was almost no pension, income support or employment income. The majority of income in this band was from other benefits (for example council tax, housing and child benefits) plus relatively high proportions from investment and remaining income (such as income from educational grants and student loans, maintenance payments, private insurance payments etc.).

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The most widely used summary measure of the degree of inequality in the household income distribution is the Gini coefficient.

The Gini coefficient represents an overall measure of the cumulative income share against the share of households in the population. It ranges between 0 and 100 with 0 indicating total equality of income across a population and 100 indicating total inequality (if one household had all the income).

The graph on the right shows that since 1994 household income in Scotland has been slightly, but consistently, more equally distributed than in Great Britain as a whole.

For more detailed analysis of the Gini coefficient and a discussion of inequality of income in Scotland see the 'Income Distribution in Scotland' article in the 2007 Scottish Economic Statistics publication.

This chart shows household income quintiles (those in quintile 1 are the lowest income households) by banded total household assets and savings. The figures include all savings and assets, including stocks and shares but excluding property.

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The coloured bars represent the proportion of individuals living in households whose total assets and savings fall within 1 of seven bands, from no savings at all to savings worth £80,000 or more.

• The chart shows that just under half (46%) of individuals in the lowest income quintile have no assets or savings at all. This compares to around 14% of the highest income individuals with no savings.
• These 2006/07 data suggest greater levels of saving than observed in 2005/06 when nearly 60% of people in the lowest quintile and 16% in the highest quintile had no savings.

The following chart shows the proportion of total income that each decile has received over the past 13 years.

To increase the total sum of income received by all deciles and the proportion received by the lowest three deciles as a group is the Scottish Government's Solidarity Target. Click here for more information.

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Deciles are created by splitting the population into 10 equally sized groups. Decile 1 is the 10 per cent of individuals with the lowest equivalised income, and decile 10 is the 10 per cent of indiviudals with the highest equivalised income.

The chart shows that

• For the past 13 years, the lowest 3 deciles have taken home approximately 14 per cent of the total income in Scotland.
• The highest 3 deciles have taken home about half of the total income in Scotland.
• There has been very little variation between years, although the total sum of income received by all households has been increasing steadily.

The Households Below Average Income datasets can not be broken down to Local Authority level in Scotland, meaning poverty figures for Local Authorities are not available.

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Tax credit and benefit claimant data from HM Revenue and Customs can be used as proxy data for child poverty at a Local Authority level. The chart shows the percentage of children in each Local Authority that live in households dependent on out of work benefits OR Child Tax Credit more than the family element.

Data from the Scottish Household Survey can be used to provide some indication of household income at Local Authority Level. Click here to download Scottish Household Survey Income Data.