Scottish Household Survey 2022: Key Findings

7. Environment

Climate change

There has been an increase in the proportion of adults viewing climate change as an immediate and urgent problem, from 68% in 2019 to 74% in 2022 (Table 7.1).

By age group, the largest increases were amongst those aged 25-34, increasing from 67% in 2019 to 78% in 2022 and those aged 75+, increasing from 56% to 65% over the same period. The lowest proportions for all age groups were for those aged 16-24 (60%) and 75+ (65%) (Table 7.5).

Women and men are now equally likely to view climate change as an immediate and urgent problem (74%). Compared to 2019 this is an increase from 66% for men and 70% for women (Table 7.6).

In 2022, 86% of adults with a degree or professional qualification perceived climate change as an immediate and urgent problem, compared to 58% for adults with no qualifications. For adults with a degree or professional qualification this proportion was an increase from 80% in 2019 and for adults with no qualifications this was an increase from 49% in 2019 (Table 7.2).

In 2022, 80% of adults agreed that they understood what actions they should take to help tackle climate change with an increase from 74% in 2018 (the most recent figures comparable with 2022) (Table 7.41).

Access to outdoors

In 2022, 70% adults visited the outdoors at least once a week, a substantial increase from 56% in 2019 (Table 7.51).

The proportion of adults visiting the outdoors at least weekly in 2022 was lower for older age groups (50% for those age 75+ compared to 78% for those age 25-34). For all age categories 16-59 the proportion was more than seven in ten (Table 7.55). Similar proportions were recorded for women (69%) and men (71%) (Table 7.56).

Adults who reported their general health to be bad or very bad were less likely to visit the outdoors at least weekly (38%) than those reporting good or very good general health (77%) (Table 7.57). Furthermore, adults reporting a disability were less likely to visit the outdoors at least weekly (55%) than those who did not report a disability (76%) (Table 7.58).

Adults living in the 20% most deprived areas were less likely to have visited the outdoors at least weekly (56%) compared to those in the 20% least deprived areas (77%). For the 20% most deprived areas, this was an increase from 43% in 2019 and for the 20% least deprived areas the proportion increased from 66% in 2019 (Table 7.53).

Adults in the 20% most deprived areas were also more likely not to have visited the outdoors at all in 2022 (15%) than those in the 20% least deprived areas (3%) (Table 7.52).

The proportion of adults visiting the outdoors at least weekly was highest in remote small towns (88%) and lowest in areas described as other urban areas (67%), large urban areas (68%), and accessible small towns (68%) (Table 7.54).

In 2022, most adults (70%) reported living within a five minute walk of their nearest area of green or blue space, an increase from 66% in 2019 (Table 7.61). This proportion was lower for adults in the 20% most deprived areas (57%) compared to other areas (all 68% or above) (Table 7.62). This proportion was also lower for adults in large urban areas (61%), particularly when compared to adults in remote rural areas (82%) (Table 7.63).

Land use

In order to monitor the degree of community engagement with legal processes affecting the land where they live and work, adults are asked to report the ways in which they have participated in land use decisions. In 2022, a total of 10% of adults reported that they had given their views on land use, lower than the 15% reported for 2018, the most recent year for which comparable data is available.

A greater proportion of adults living in rural areas reported giving their views on land use (16%) compared to adults living in urban areas (9%).

Adults are asked to select from a list of possible ways in which they have expressed their views on land use decisions. The most common ways people reported using were signing a petition and taking part in a consultation or survey (both 4% of adults) and the least common was through discussions with a land owner or land manager (1% of adults) (Table 7.70).