Scottish Household Survey: Bulletin No 3

1 Key points

• The Scottish Household Survey is a major continuous survey funded by the Scottish Executive covering 62,000 households over its first four years.
• The analysis reported in this Bulletin includes a geo-demographic variable called Scottish MOSAIC. This neighbourhood classification system has been used to give an initial indication of differences between neighbourhood types in Scotland.
• 36% of all households do not have access to a motor vehicle. Of those living in 'high income' areas, this decreases to 10% while in 'families in council flat' areas, 73% of households do not have access to a motor vehicle.
• 30% of all households have a computer but only 12% of house-holds in 'families in council flats' do, compared with 50% of house-holds in 'high income' areas. Across all areas, 12% of house-holds have access to the internet from home. Within 'high income areas' this increases to 22% while in 'families in council flats' it is 4%.
• Household income varies in terms of MOSAIC type. In 'disadvantaged council estates' and 'families in council flats' over 60% of households have a net household income of £10,000 per annum or less compared with 46% of all households.
• Overall, 23% of adults have no qualifications, 27% have a Higher grade or equivalent and 12% have a first or higher degree. Individuals in areas categorised as 'families in council flats' are most likely to have no qualifications (45%), with 'renting singles', 'better off council' and 'dis-advantaged council estates' also containing a high proportion of individuals with no qualifications.
• Across all neighbourhood types, a hospital outpatient department is the service that people are most likely to find inconvenient to visit. Around one in three (34%) say that they would find it very or fairly inconvenient to use one during the normal opening hours of the department.
• One in five respondents (19%) say that it is very or fairly inconvenient for them to use public transport. This rises to as many as six in ten people (58%) in 'country dweller' neighbourhoods.
• Overall, 50% of respondents say their neighbourhood is very good and 42% say it is fairly good as a place to live. Only 8% of respondents rate their neighbour-hood as either a fairly poor or very poor place to live.
• Over 40% of respondents in 'families in council flat' areas say people drinking or taking drugs is a common problem and the same proportion say vandalism and deliberate damage to property is a problem in their neighbourhood.
• 'Country dweller' households report very few neighbourhood problems with 92% reporting only one or no problems in their neighbourhood.