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Scottish Household Survey Bulletin No.6

2. Introduction

This is the sixth bulletin of findings from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS); a major survey of the Scottish population funded by the Scottish Executive. The aim of the SHS is to provide information on the characteristics, composition and behaviour of Scottish households and the adult population.

The survey covers a wide range of topics and by bringing this range of topics together in one survey, allows analysis of issues in ways that have not previously been possible in Scotland.

This bulletin considers the differences and similarities between adults and households living in different geographical areas and area types. The main geographical indicators used in the analysis are an urban/rural classification and a Local Authority grouping variable.

Often analysis is based on all rural areas together, which does not provide any details on the potentially different characteristics of different types of rural areas. The eight-fold urban/rural classification has been selected to enable a detailed analysis of households and adults in different types of rural areas.

The Local Authority grouping classification enables analysis of different areas, and, where possible, data for individual local authorities are used.

The analysis in this bulletin is based on data collected from 30,157 households and 28,277 individuals during 1999 and 2000.

Further methodological details of the survey and a note on definitions are provided at the end of this bulletin.

Urban/rural classification

For the purposes of this Bulletin, an eight-fold urban/rural classification of Scotland has been adopted, based on settlement size and remoteness (measured by drive times).

This classification differs from the six-fold classification adopted in previous SHS publications, to allow more detailed geographical analysis to be conducted given the larger sample size. The eight-fold classification divides the previous 'remote' classifications into two, adding a 'remote' and a 'very remote' category to both the previous 'remote small towns' and 'remote rural' area categories (see section 10 for further details).

Using respondents' home postcodes, households have been classified as follows:

The four cities - households in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, and Glasgow (settlements over 125,000 population).

Other urban areas - households in settlements of 10,000 to 125,000 people.

Accessible small towns - households in settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Remote small towns - small towns (between 3,000 and 10,000 people) within a drive time of between 30 and 60 minutes of a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Very remote small towns - small towns (between 3,000 and 10,000 people) over 60 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Accessible rural - households in settlements of less than 3,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Remote rural - households in settlements of less than 3,000 people and within a drive time of between 30 and 60 minutes of a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Very remote rural - households in settlements of less than 3,000 people, over 60 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.

Isolated houses and hamlets are included in settlements of less than 3,000 people.

Table I shows the percentage of households in each area type. The eight-fold urban/rural classification is also illustrated in Map 1.

Table I: Urban/rural classification

Local Authority grouping

The SHS has been designed to provide results for each of the 32 Scottish local authorities at the end of each two-year sampling period. Although this Bulletin is based on two years of data, in some analyses the sample sizes remain small. Thus, for the purpose of this bulletin, local authorities have been combined into larger groups to provide more reliable results.

In the analysis to follow, the City of Edinburgh, City of Glasgow, Fife, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire councils are each considered separately.

The remaining local authorities have been grouped as follows:

Highlands and Islands - Eilean Siar, Argyll and Bute, Highland, Moray, Orkney and Shetland.

Grampian - City of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

Tayside - Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross.

Central - Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Falkirk.

Dunbartonshire - East and West Dunbartonshire.

Renfrewshire and Inverclyde - East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.

Ayrshire - South, East, and North Ayrshire.

Lothians - West Lothian, East Lothian and Midlothian.

Southern Scotland - Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

Table II shows the percentage of households in each of the Local Authority group areas. The areas are also illustrated in Map 2.

Table II: Local authority grouping

Where sample sizes permit, some results are also presented for individual local authorities. For ease of reference, groupings of local authorities are indicated in italics, and individual local authorities are indicated in standard typeface.

A detailed breakdown of results by individual local authorities will be published in the second SHS Annual Report in Autumn 2001.

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