Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2017: attitudes data

Scottish Social Attitudes 2017

Attitudes to government and the Scottish Parliament

• In 2017, 61% trusted the Scottish Government to work in Scotland's best interests and 37% to make fair decisions, compared with 65% and 40% respectively in 2016. Consistent with previous years, trust in the UK Government was lower, at 20% and 16% respectively.
• For the second year in the time series, more people thought that the Scottish Government has most influence over the way Scotland is run (43%) than thought the UK Government had most influence (41%).
• Almost three quarters (74%) of people said that the Scottish Government should have most influence over the way Scotland is run. 15% said the UK Government should have the most influence.
• In 2017, 64% said that the Scottish Parliament gives Scotland a stronger voice in the UK, compared with 71% in 2016. Similar to 2016, 57% said it gave ordinary people more say in how Scotland is governed.

Views on the economy and the standard of living in Scotland

• The most commonly chosen priority for Scottish Government action was to improve standards of education (26%).
• Half of respondents (50%) said the economy had weakened over the past year, compared with 54% in 2016.
  39% of those respondents attributed this to UK Government policy, 29% to Scottish Government policy and 15% to "some other reason"
• In 2017 56% said that the general standard of living in Scotland had fallen over the past year, compared with 36% saying this in 2016.
  Of those who had perceived a fall in living standards, 50% attributed the fallen standard to UK Government policy; 16% attributed this to Scottish Government policy, and 14% attributed this to 'some other reason'.

Importance of Voting

• 92% of respondents said that voting in Scottish Parliament elections was very or fairly important. 88% said this of local elections and 87% of UK general elections. These figures are similar to in 2016.

Views on the National Health Service in Scotland

• Over half (55%) of respondents were satisfied with the way the NHS was being run in 2017, compared with 60% in 2016.
• Almost half (49%) said that standards in the health service had fallen over the past year, compared to 37% in 2016. Of those, 46% attributed this to UK Government policy, 27% attributed this to Scottish Government policy, and 13% attributed this to "some other reason".