Cultural engagement in Scotland 2023: Scottish Household Survey findings

Annex A: Scottish Household Survey

This report summarises the findings on culture and heritage from the 2023 Scottish Household Survey (SHS). The SHS is an annual survey of the general population in Scotland, carried out since 1999. It aims to collect reliable and up-to-date information on a range of topics, through a random sample of people in private residences. It is a voluntary and interviewer-led survey.

In 2023, as is typical, the SHS was carried out as a face-to-face interview, primarily administered in people’s homes. This represents a return to the traditional methodology after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the 2020 and 2021 survey years and necessitated a change in approach.

The 2023 results are published as official statistics. Official statistics are statistics that are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

In 2020 and 2021 these results were published as experimental statistics. This was due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in the 2020 and 2021 survey years having a different methodology, lower response rates and a change in the profile of respondents compared to typical survey years. Data relating to 2020 and 2021 can be found in their respective key findings reports and supplementary documents.

10,540 households were interviewed for the SHS 2023 survey, between February 2023 and early February 2024. The 2023 methodology and fieldwork outcomes report provides details of the methods used. Prior to 2023, results from the SHS were published in one key findings report split into chapters by topic area. From 2023 onwards a new approach to reporting is being undertaken with individual topic reports being published. The full set of SHS 2023 data tables was published via the SHS Data Explorer on 2 December 2024.

Throughout this report, tables are referenced. These are published in Excel format as supporting documents to the report, and include specific results for groups in the population (e.g. urban and rural areas). Some of the differences between groups may be due to random sampling variation i.e. chance. Similarly, some apparent differences between 2022 and 2023 results may occur by chance. We use standard statistical tests of significance to determine the likelihood of differences being due to chance. When this report refers to differences between groups or years, these differences are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level unless explicitly stated otherwise. Some differences between groups in the Excel tables that appear large may not be mentioned in this report, because they are not statistically significant.

Questions regarding cultural attendance and participation are asked of the full sample, with the exception of some follow-up questions asked of a section of the sample (e.g. regarding the frequency of attendance or participation as this follow-up question is only asked of those who reported attending/participating in cultural events or activities). Where a question is not asked of a full sample, this is highlighted. Some of the questions are only asked every other year.