High Level Summary of Equality Statistics: Key Trends for Scotland 2006

Introduction

The High Level Summary of Equality Statistics ( HLSES) presents statistical trends on the main areas of Government activity in Scotland across a number of equality dimensions including age, disability, ethnicity, gender and in some cases religion. It provides a standardised, concise format for each topic; presenting information graphically where possible and provides a route into more detailed statistics on each topic and each equality dimension by listing relevant publications and websites after each trend. In some cases web links to qualitative research are also provided.

The HLSES reflects the key areas of Government activity identified in the High Level Summary of Statistics ( HLSS), an allied publication issued by the Scottish Executive in June 2006. Where the HLSS presents substantial data by any of the above equality dimensions, these are also shown in this publication for ease of reference. The HLSS can be accessed on the Scottish Executive web site at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics.

As well as presenting information on key trends, the HLSES aims to show where differences and potential areas of inequality may exist in Scotland for the groups outlined above. Trends are presented individually for each sub-topic; the publication does not attempt to provide a flowing narrative between sub-topics and it is not intended to provide a definitive set of equality statistics.

The information presented in this publication can be accessed on-line via the Scottish Executive Statistics website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/HLSES. The main publication presents information by topic area, however in addition to this, data relating to each separate equality dimension have been made available in a series of sub publications which can be accessed using the above link. Data have been made available in this way for those who may be interested in a particular equality dimension.