Discrimination and Harassment in Scotland, results from the 2023 Scottish Household Survey

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is an annual survey of the general population in Scotland, carried out since 1999. It collects reliable and up-to-date information on the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviour of private households and individuals across Scotland.

The full set of SHS 2023 statistics are published on the SHS Data Explorer. The 2023 methodology and field outcomes report is available in the Scottish Household Survey Scottish Government Publications page.

This publication highlights key findings for discrimination and harassment. Because the survey's estimates may be affected by sampling errors, apparent differences of a few percentage points between sub-samples may not reflect real differences in the population. It might be that the true values in the population are similar but the random selection of households for the survey has, by chance, produced a sample which gives a high estimate for one sub-sample and a low estimate for the other. Due to this, this report has only highlighted differences between groups where differences are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.

The survey asked participants:

• “Have you personally been unfairly treated or discriminated against in Scotland for the last 12 months, for any of these reasons?”
• “Have you personally experienced harassment or abuse in Scotland in the last 12 months, for any of these reasons?”

The following reasons were provided to respondents for both questions:

• Your age
• Your sex or gender
• Where you live
• Your language
• Your ethnicity
• Your nationality
• Your accent
• Your social or educational background
• Your sexual orientation
• Your trans status including non-binary identities
• Sectarian reasons
• Your religious belief or faith
• Your mental ill health
• Any other health problems or disability
• Other reason
• I have not experienced this
• Don’t know
• Refused