Data and methodology

The Scottish Household Survey is an annual survey which has run since 1999. It has a random sample, designed to be representative of the adult population in Scotland. In 2022 and 2023, interviews were undertaken face to face as has been longstanding practice (except during COVID-19 when the methodology was altered and interviews took place by telephone or video link hence results for 2020 and 2021 are not directly comparable with other years).

The survey operates such that some questions are asked of all respondents and some of a subset. In 2023, for example, 3,010 people were asked the question on attitudes to climate change, whereas all respondents (9,750 people) were asked the question on visits to the outdoors. The number of people asked each question (the “base”) is provided in the SHS Data Explorer.

See the SHS webpage for further information on the data source and methodology.