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

Equality breakdowns by sex, age, disability, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation

Analysis was undertaken to consider how reported experiences of discrimination or harassment, for any possible reason, varied by equality characteristics. The 2023 findings outlined below are generally similar to the previous year 2022 (see: Scottish Household Survey 2022: Key Findings).

Sex

The 2023 SHS asked respondents what their sex is. The response options were female, male, or prefer not to say. Female respondents (8%) were slightly more likely to report experiences of discrimination than male respondents (6%). However, reports of harassment were similar for female and male respondents (5% compared to 4%) (Table 1).

Age

Younger respondents, aged 16-24, were more likely to report both discrimination (13%) and harassment (8%) than those aged 75 and over (3% of those in this age bracket reported discrimination and only 1% reported harassment) (Table 1).

Disability

A disability is defined as a long-term limiting physical or mental health condition. Of those who responded that they had a disability, 12% said they experienced discrimination, in comparison to non-disabled people with 6% reporting discrimination. This means that adults with a disability were twice as likely to report experiences of discrimination than adults without a disability (Table 2).

Similarly, adults with a disability were almost twice as likely to respond they had experienced harassment (7%) in comparison to adults without a disability (4%) (Table 2).

Ethnicity

Both ‘minority ethnic’ groups (17%) and ‘white other’ groups (16%) were more likely to report that they experienced discrimination than ‘white Scottish’ (6%) and ‘white other British’ (7%) groups (Table 2). In the 2023 SHS, ‘minority ethnic groups’ includes mixed or multiple, Asian, African, Caribbean or Black, Arab or any other ethnic groups, and ‘white other’ groups include Irish, Gypsy/Traveller, Polish and other white ethnic groups.

This can also be said for experiences of harassment; 16% of those in a ‘minority ethnic’ group and 8% of those in the ‘white other’ group reported harassment, in comparison to 4% of those in ‘white Scottish’ and 4% in the ‘white other British’ groups (Table 2). Overall, ‘minority ethnic’ groups were the most common to report harassment compared to all other ethnic groups (16% compared to 8% of ‘white other’, 4% of ‘white Scottish’, and 4% of ‘white other British’ groups (Table 2).

Religion

Respondents were asked 'what religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?', which measures belonging, both loose self-identification and active or formal belonging to a religious group.

Those belonging to ‘another religion’ (13%), other Christian (12%), and Roman Catholic (11%), reported the highest levels of discrimination. ‘Another religion’ includes respondents who are Muslims, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, Pagan, or another religion. This is in comparison to respondents who identified as belonging to no religious group and to the Church of Scotland (7% and 4% respectively) (Table 2).

The same groups reported the highest levels of harassment (10% of those belonging to ‘another religion’, 11% other Christian, and 7% Roman Catholic). In comparison, 4% of respondents belonging to no religious group and 3% of those belonging to the Church of Scotland reported harassment (Table 2).

Sexual Orientation

Nearly 1 in 4 (23%) respondents who described their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, or bisexual experienced discrimination. At the same time, roughly 1 in 7 (14%) respondents who described their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, or bisexual experienced harassment. In comparison, fewer respondents who identified as heterosexual or straight reported discrimination or harassment (7% and 4%). Generally, over three times as many gay, lesbian or bisexual respondents reported discrimination or harassment in comparison to heterosexual and straight respondents (Table 2).