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

Annex C: Scottish Household Survey Glossary

Cultural engagement

Cultural engagement is defined as those adults who have either attended at least one type of cultural place or who have participated in a cultural activity in the previous 12 months.

Attendance at a 'place of culture' can cover any of the following:

• Cinema
• Library (including mobile and online)
• Classical music performance
• Opera
• Live music event - eg. traditional music, rock concert
• Theatre - e.g. pantomime / musical / play
• Dance show / event - e.g. ballet, street dance
• Comedy performance
• Historic place – e.g. castle, stately home, archaeological site
• Museum
• Art gallery
• Exhibition - including art, photography and crafts
• Street arts (e.g. musical performances or art in parks, streets or shopping centre)
• Culturally specific festival (e.g. Mela /Feis)
• Book festival
• Archive or records office (e.g. Scotland’s Family History Peoples Centre)
• Streaming of a live performance (e.g. theatre, dance, concert or comedy performance)
• Any other event you consider cultural (please say what)*.

Participation in 'a cultural activity' can cover any of the following:

• Read books, poetry or graphic novels / comics for pleasure (including on a Kindle or other mobile device)
• Dance, either for fitness or not for fitness
• Played a musical instrument or written music
• Taken part in a theatrical performance such as a play, musical, comedy or variety performance (including production and backstage activities)
• Sang in a singing group or choir
• Painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture
• Photography as an artistic activity (not family or holiday 'snaps')
• Film- making/ video-making as an artistic activity
• Used a computer to produce artwork or animation
• Crafts such as knitting, wood jewellery making, pottery, etc.
• Creative writing - stories, books, comics, plays or poetry
• Viewed performances (e.g. music or dance) online on a smartphone, computer, smart tv etc
• Viewed cultural content online (e.g. museum or heritage collections or artist’s work)
• Shared art or creative content online that you have created yourself (such as digital art, music, dance, videos or recordings)
• Other cultural activity

In the last 12 months

As interviews are completed continuously throughout the year, data published on the ‘last 12 months’ refers to the year prior to the respondent’s interview and not the calendar year January-December. The same will hold true for other time periods being reported on.

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is a relative measure of deprivation across small areas in Scotland. It is the Scottish Government's official tool for identifying those places in Scotland suffering from multiple deprivation. It incorporates several different aspects of deprivation, combining them into a single index.

It divides Scotland into 6,976 small areas, called data zones, each containing around 350 households. The index provides a relative ranking for each data zone, from one (most deprived) to 6,976 (least deprived). By identifying small areas where there are concentrations of multiple deprivation, SIMD can be used to target policies and resources at the places with greatest need.

SIMD20 uses seven domains to measure the multiple aspects of deprivation:

• income
• employment
• health
• education, skills and training
• housing
• geographic access to services
• crime

In the tables, the data zones are grouped as quintiles (from the 20% most to the 20% least deprived data zones)^[29].

The SIMD was updated in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016 and, most recently, in 2020. The most relevant available version of SIMD for each year is used in outputs from the SHS. SIMD20 was used in the 2021 SHS outputs.

Urban rural classification

The Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland. The classification is based upon two main criteria: (i) population, as defined by the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and (ii) accessibility, based on drive time analysis to differentiate between accessible and remote areas in Scotland.

The six-fold categories are as follows:

• Large Urban Areas - settlements of 125,000 people and over.
• Other Urban Areas - settlements of 10,000 to 124,999 people.
• Accessible Small Towns - settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and within a 30 minute drive time of a settlement of 10,000 or more.
• Remote Small Towns - settlements of 3,000 to 9,999 people, and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more.
• Accessible Rural Areas - areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and within a 30 minute drive time of a settlement of 10,000 or more.
• Remote Rural Areas - areas with a population of less than 3,000 people, and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more

In the two fold Urban Rural Classification, ‘Rest of Scotland' includes large urban areas, other urban areas, accessible small towns and remote small towns and 'Rural Scotland' includes accessible rural and remote rural areas.

Highest level of qualification

The highest level of qualification has been classified as follows:

• Degree, Professional qualification – Includes: First degree, Higher degree, SVQ Level 5, Professional qualifications e.g. teaching, accountancy or equivalent.
• HNC/ HND or equivalent – Includes: HNC, HND, SVQ Level 4, RSA Higher Diploma or equivalent.
• Higher, A Level or equivalent – Includes: Higher Grade, Advanced Higher, CSYS, A Level, AS Level, Advanced Senior Certificate. GNVQ/ GSVQ Advanced, SVQ Level 3, ONC, OND, SCOTVEC National Diploma, City and Guilds Advanced Craft, RSA Advanced Diploma or equivalent.
• O Grade, Standard Grade or equivalent – Includes: School leaving certificate, National Qualification (NQ) Access Unit, O Grade, Standard Grade, GCSE, GCE O level, CSE, NQ Access 3 Cluster, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, National 4, National 5, Senior Certificate, GNVQ/ GSVQ Foundation or Intermediate, SVQ Level 1, SVQ Level 2, SCOTVEC/National Certificate Module, City and Guilds Craft, RSA Diploma or equivalent.
• Other qualification.
• No qualifications.
• Qualifications not known.

Net annual household income

The term net annual household income refers to income (i.e. after taxation and other deductions) from employment, benefits and other sources that is brought into the household by the highest income householder and/or their spouse or partner. This includes any contribution to household finances made by other household members (e.g. dig money). In 2018, the SHS questionnaire added questions to gather information on the income of up to three other adults in the household for the first time.

Sex and gender

Prior to 2018, the household part of the survey (where one person responds on behalf of all members of the household), asked the following question about each member of the household:

Is {name} male or female?

• Male
• Female

In 2018, the question was changed to the following:

How would you describe your gender identity/how would you describe the gender identity of {name}?

• Man/Boy
• Woman/Girl
• In another way (if you would like to, please tell me what other words you use) [Other specify]
• Refused (spontaneous)

This change was implemented following a broader review of user needs across the SHS the Scottish House Condition Survey and the Scottish Survey Core Questions undertaken in 2017. The review, which aimed to gather views on what changes users would propose to survey questions, was launched via the SHS website and was promoted more widely, for example through existing stakeholder contacts and on ScotStat and Twitter networks. The Scottish Government published the outcomes of the review and the rationale for changes.

The new gender identity question was asked in the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 surveys.

For 2022 onwards, the survey asks the following questions, in line with the Scottish Government’s new Data collection and publication guidance – Sex, Gender Identity, Trans Status.

The household respondent is asked:

What is your sex? (Or “what is the sex of {name}?” when responding for another person)

• Female
• Male
• Prefer not to say

In addition, one randomly selected adult in the household is asked the follow-up question(s):

Do you consider yourself to be trans, or have a trans history?

• Yes
• No
• Prefer not to say

If you would like to, please describe your trans status (for example non-binary, trans man, trans woman):

· This is an open text response

The change in question is unlikely to have any material impact on the sex (previously gender) breakdowns of SHS data or comparability of these across time. This is because the results to date indicate that only very small numbers of respondents would be likely to answer differently depending on the particular sex and gender questions asked. In 2021, 0.3% of the random adults in the survey responded to the gender question with ‘identified in another way’. In 2022, fewer than 0.1% of the random adults in the survey responded ‘prefer not to say’ to the sex question, and 0.3% answered ‘yes’ or ‘prefer not to say’ to the trans status question.

Disability

Disability is defined in line with Scottish Government guidance.

The random adult respondent is asked the following:

Do you have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?

• Yes
• No
• Don't know
• Refusal

If the answer is ‘yes’ the following is asked:

Does your condition or illness/do any of your conditions or illnesses reduce your ability to carry-out day-to-day activities?

• Yes, a lot
• Yes, a little
• Not at all
• Refusal (spontaneous only)

When producing disability breakdowns, respondents are categorised as ‘disabled’ if they answer ‘yes, a lot’ or ‘yes, a little’ to the second question. They are categorised as ‘non-disabled’ if they answer ‘no’ to the first question, or ‘not at all’ to the second question.