Offshore wind farm developments - public perceptions: survey

Appendix C- Further sample details

Sampling approach

For the national survey, respondents were selected using a stratified approach according to age, sex and geographic location. This means that those invited to respond to the survey were chosen to reflect the adult population of Scotland (16+) in terms of age, sex and location. This minimises the level of weighting required at the data analysis stage. Respondents to the survey among those who live in Scotland's coastal communities were selected at random, using the known locational data embedded within the ScotPulse database to ensure that they lived in a coastal area, the definition of which is explained below. As explained in section 1.3, data from the national survey were weighted to the most recent mid-year population estimates, while data from coastal survey were weighted to the age and gender profile of the coastal population using estimates from Scotland's Census 2011.

Location information held by ScotPulse on panel members was utilised to target those within coastal communities. For the purposes of this research, we identified coastal communities as a postcode area that borders the sea. Panel members were then subset by their outward postcode^[18] and those with the same outward postcode as each development were identified as having 'lived experience'.

Defining 'local area'

The term 'local area' is used within the report and is self-defined by the respondent e.g., some of the questions in the questionnaire ask about perceptions of the local area and the term "local area" may mean something different for each respondent. Also, during additional sub-group analysis, the 6-fold urban rural classifications are used to define the postcode area the respondent lives in.

Lived experience is defined, for this report, as those living in postcode locations near a development or associated infrastructure. This definition may include some respondents who are aware of the development and some who are not. We consider this to be valid as an experience of a wind farm may include being completely unaffected and oblivious to it.