Scottish household survey 2019: key findings

Section Nine - Local Services

Since 2007, the satisfaction with local services had decreased in Scotland - but this might be changing.

The satisfaction with all three local services decreased from 66% in 2011 to 53% in 2019.

Local health services tended to have the highest satisfaction rate, but had followed a downward trend since 2011, from 88% of adults being satisfied to 80% in 2019.

However, while the satisfaction with local schools and public transport decreased overall since 2011, there had been an increase in the years prior.

This line graph shows satisfaction with local services, and how they changed between 2007 and 2019. Starting with the service with the highest satisfaction rates in 2019, it lists “Health Services”, “Schools”, “Public Transportation” and “All three services”. It highlights that satisfaction with individual services was higher than satisfaction with all three, and that satisfaction had been on a downward trend since 2011, with some changes in the satisfaction of schools and public transportation in the most recent years.

The satisfaction with local schools had increased from 70% in 2017 to 73% in 2019
The satisfaction with public transport had increased from 65% in 2018 to 68% in 2019

The proportion of service users who were satisfied with public transportation increased from 72% in 2018 to 76% in 2019.

While only 68% of all adults were satisfied with public transportation in 2019, 76% of transport service users were satisfied with the service.

Similarly, 86% of service users were satisfied with local schools, as opposed to 73% of all adults.

There was no difference in the satisfaction rate when it came to local health services.

This bar chart shows the difference in satisfaction with local health services, local schools and public transportation between services users and all adults in Scotland. It highlights that more adults using local schools and public transportation were satisfied with the service than the average satisfaction among adults.

Generally, service users were more satisfied with local services than the average satisfaction rate among adults

49% of adults in rural areas were satisfied with public transportation – this was significantly lower than in urban areas, where 72% were satisfied.

Additionally, only 41% of adults in rural areas were overall satisfied with local services, including public transportation, health services and schools, as opposed to 55% in urban areas.

However, this was almost entirely driven by differences in satisfaction with public transport.

Adults in rural areas were more satisfied with their local health services (81%) than those in urban areas (79%).

This bar chart shows the difference between adults in urban and rural areas when it comes to satisfaction with “Local Health Services”, “Local Schools”, “Public Transportation”, and “All three services”. It highlights that more adults in urban areas were satisfied with public transportation and had a higher overall satisfaction with local services than adults in rural areas.

Overall, rural adults were less satisfied with public services.
Most of this difference came from adults in rural areas being significantly less satisfied with public transportation.

Generally, older adults were more likely than younger adults to say that they were satisfied with local government performance.

Adults aged 65 or over were more likely to agree that the local government delivered a high quality service, that it did its best with money and that it was good at communicating services.

However, adults between 16 and 39 were significantly more likely to say that they wanted greater involvement with their local government than adults aged 65 or over.

This bar chart shows the difference between people aged 65 or over and aged 16 to 34 when it comes to agreeing with statements about local government. Starting with the statement that most people agree with, the graph lists the following: “High quality services”, “Does its best with money”, “Good at communicating services”, “Services designed for needs”, “I want greater involvement”, and “Good at listening”. It highlights that those aged 65 or over were more likely to agree with these statements overall, but that young people were more likely to want greater involvement with local governments.

In 2019, only 18% of adults felt they could influence decisions in their local area
This had decreased significantly from 24% of adults in 2015