Cultural engagement in Scotland: what is it and why does it matter?

Annex A: Scottish Household Survey

This report summarises the findings on culture and heritage from the 2022 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 2022, 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 2022 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.

Around 10,500 households were interviewed for the SHS 2022 survey, between 11 March 2022 and 6 March 2023. Response rates were lower than they had been pre-pandemic (2019 and earlier). This could potentially have been accompanied by a small change in the pattern of non-response to the survey, which is discussed in more detail in the 2022 methodology report. In general, these differences are unlikely to have a significant impact on the reported results, and the 2022 results are broadly comparable to 2019 and earlier years.

Some of the differences between groups may be due to random sampling variation i.e. chance. Similarly, some apparent differences between 2019 and 2022 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.

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.