High Level Summary of Statistics: Key Trends for Scotland 2006

12. Social and Welfare

Income

More people working and higher productivity have both contributed to the fact that, on average, households in Scotland are getting better off.

Household income - Median weekly equivalised disposable income before housing costs - rose by £64 in real terms between 1996/97 and 2004/05, from £285 in 1996/97 (in 2004/05 prices) to £349 in 2004/05.

Median weekly equivalised disposable income after housing costs - rose by £74 in real terms between 1996/97 and 2004/05, from £240 in 1996/97 (in 2004/05 prices) to £313 in 2004/05.

Source: DWP Family Resources Survey, Household Below Average Income datasets
(Equivalisation is the process of adjusting household income to account for variations in household size and composition.

Source: DWP Family Resources Survey, Household Below Average Income datasets
(Equivalisation is the process of adjusting household income to account for variations in household size and composition.

Low Income

Individuals in Absolute Low Income

Absolute low income is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are seeing their incomes rise in real terms.

The current low income estimates for 2004/05 show that the number of individuals in absolute low income households before housing costs fell from 1,010,000 in 1996/97 to 470,000 in 2004/05. This is a decrease of 53%.

The number of individuals in low income households after housing costs was 1,230,000 in 1996/97, falling to 550,000 in 2004/05. This is a decrease of 55%.

Source: Family Resource Survey, DWP

Individuals in Relative Low Income

Relative low income is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth of incomes in the economy as a whole.

The number of individuals in relative low income households before housing costs fell by 21%, from 1,010,000 in 1996/97 to 800,000 in 2004/05.

After housing costs numbers fell by 26%, from 1,230,000 in 1996/97 to 910,000 in 2004/05.

Source: Family Resource Survey, DWP

Web link
Income and Benefit Statistics

Deprivation

Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) 2004 is the Scottish Executive's official measure for identifying small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland. The SIMD is relevant to polices and funding wholly or partly aimed at tackling or taking account of the causes and effects of concentrations of multiple deprivation.

The Index is based on the small area statistical geography of data zones which contain on average 750 people. There are 6,505 data zones, covering the whole of Scotland, which nest within local authority boundaries. The SIMD is constructed from a combination of six domains, which are assigned weightings to create the final index. The domain ranks are combined using the ratios 6:6:3:3:2:1 in the following order: Current Income, Employment, Health, Education, Skills and Training, Geographic Access and Telecommunications and Housing.

Concentrations of multiple deprivation are predominantly found in Glasgow City. Almost 70% of the 5% most deprived areas; 50% the 10% most deprived areas; and 38% of the 15% most deprived areas are found in Glasgow City.

Over 50 per cent of the data zones in Glasgow City are defined to be in the 15% most deprived areas nationally; the comparable statistics for other local authorities with relatively high concentrations are Inverclyde (33%); Dundee (28%), West Dunbartonshire (27%), and North Lanarkshire (25%).

East Lothian, Eilean Siar, Moray, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands have no areas in the 15% most deprived areas across Scotland.

Because the data in the income domain of the SIMD measures absolute levels of things like benefits and tax credits, it can be used as a proxy for levels of individual deprivation, and 38% of all income deprived people live in the 15% most deprived areas.

Source: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2004

Publication
Social Focus on Deprived Areas, 2005 (Published 2005)

Web links
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004
Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics

Rural Areas

Rural Economic Activity

The figure shows that inactivity rates (those neither in employment nor unemployed) are lower in rural Scotland than in the rest of Scotland. The main reasons for being economically inactive are long term sickness or disability, being a student and looking after family. The employment rate (the number of people employed as a proportion of the total population of working age) is higher in rural Scotland than in the rest of Scotland.

The figure shows that the unemployment rate (the number of people unemployed as a proportion of the number of economically active) is lowest in accessible rural areas.

Rates of self employment are higher in rural areas.

Source: Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey, 2004

Rural Enterprise

Business start up rates as a percentage of the population are higher in rural areas but are lower as a percentage of firms. Rural areas account for 48% of all business start ups.

Enterprise start-ups by geographic location, 2004

	Accessible Rural	Remote Rural	Rest of Scotland
Number of registrations	3,965	1630	5,960
% of registrations	34%	14%	52%
Area of population aged 16+	531,114	227,317	3,331,515
Start ups per 10,000 population	75	72	18
Start ups per 1,000 firms	74	55	91

Source: Inter Departmental Business Register, Office for National Statistics

Rural Access to Services

The figure shows that nearly 20% of people in remote rural Scotland are more that 15 minutes drive away from their GP. Access to petrol stations is a particular problem in remote rural areas.

Source: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2004 (based on data zones)

Publication
Rural Scotland Key Facts 2004 (Published 2004)