Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2013

Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2013

The Scottish Surveys Core Questions (SSCQ) 2013 is a new, annual Official Statistics publication for Scotland. SSCQ provides reliable and detailed information on the composition, characteristics and attitudes of Scottish households and adults across a number of topic areas including equality characteristics, housing, employment and perceptions of health and crime.

The SSCQ gathers survey responses from identical questions in the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, the Scottish Health Survey and the Scottish Household Survey into one output. The pooling of Core Questions results in an annual sample of around 21,000 respondents, providing unprecedented precision of estimates at national level. This sample size enables the detailed and reliable analysis of key national estimates by country of birth, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age and sex, marital status, education level and economic activity, as well as tenure, car access and household type. SSCQ also enables a detailed sub-national analysis by Local Authority, urban-rural classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The Scottish Surveys Core Questions in 2013 covered:

self-assessed general health

disability and long-term conditions

smoking

perception of local crime rate

perceptions of police performance

highest qualification held

economic activity

household type

housing type

car access

country of birth

ethnicity

religion

marital status

sexual orientation

gender

age

Further questions are under development for inclusion in future, covering income, caring responsibilities and mental well-being.

Publication of the SSCQ 2014 is planned for spring 2016, following the publication of the 2014/15 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey. Re-weighted tables for 2012, including full breakdowns by variables covered in this release, will also be published in spring 2016 (see section 6).

Jamie Robertson, Sarah Martin, Michael Davidson, Julie Wilson
- together with numerous colleagues past and present who, along with our contractors, have helped deliver each of the surveys as well as this methodological transformation

Surveys Branch, Strategic Analytical Policy Unit

Office of the Chief Statistician and Strategic Analysis, The Scottish Government

Foreword by Scotland's Chief Statistician

I am pleased to welcome this first Official Statistics publication of the Scottish Surveys Core Questions (SSCQ), which pools responses from the major population surveys in Scotland.

One of the key aims in recent years has been a review of the effectiveness and efficiency of the surveys, in providing impactful information of public value. A range of stakeholder consultations, including Beyond 2011 (NRS) and the Long Term Strategy for Population Surveys 2009-2019 (Scottish Government) have driven the strategic approach to align methodologies and harmonise questions between surveys where possible - with a view to obtaining a pooled sample of core variables spanning several surveys. This evidence feeds the user need for local data identified in consultations, and offers an unprecedented, rich resource for analysis by socioeconomic and equality groups. This will be used to support single outcome agreements by Community Planning Partnerships, and widely to measure demographic change across the public sector.

The SSCQ now provides us with an immensely valuable collection of characteristics and attitudes of Scottish households and adults across a number of topic areas including equality characteristics, housing, employment and perceptions of health and crime.

I would like to thank our contractors who have been implementing the Long Term Strategy for Population Surveys since 2012 to provide this data. Most importantly, I would also like to thank the 21,772 people who gave their time to participate in the Scottish Crime and Justice, Health and Household Surveys in 2013. The information they have provided is invaluable delivering the evidence for the development of equality, health and justice policy in Scotland.

Roger Halliday
Chief Statistician for Scotland
Scottish Government Strategy and Constitution Directorate

Guide to Tables and Figures

A wide range of tables are included in this report, drawing out key information from the SSCQ 2013 dataset, as shown in the overview of tables on page viii. It was not feasible to include all possible analyses in this report. The accompanying supplementary tables contain worksheets with full analysis of each topic across all possible social and geographic breakdowns.^[1] Also included in the supplementary tables are the 95% confidence intervals on each estimate. These confidence intervals are plotted on all charts and figures in this report. If the intervals do not overlap then there is a significant difference between two points, but if they do overlap it does not necessarily mean there is no significant difference.^[2] In the report text the term "significant" refers to "statistically significant" differences.

Main report chapters primarily discuss statistically significant comparisons (unless stated otherwise) presented in the table of the same number, e.g. Table 4.4 "Sexual Orientation" is discussed in section 4.4. It is important to note that all other (supplementary) tables also contain sexual orientation as a cross-variable, and, where significant differences are observed, the topic will be discussed in more detail in the relevant chapter. As a result of this table structure, most information is transposed in tables across different sections, providing different options for comparisons. For example:

• Table 4.1 "Country of Birth" details the percentage of people who identify as 'white: Scottish' who were born in a country outside the EU (0.6%), whereas Table 4.2 "Ethnic Group" details the percentage of people born outside the EU who identify as 'white: Scottish" (11%)
• Table 1.2 "Limiting long-term health condition" details the percentage of people in the most deprived fifth of areas who reported a limiting long-term health condition (31%), while supplementary Table S1 "Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Quintiles" details the percentage of people with a limiting long-term health condition who live in the most deprived fifth of areas (27%).

All tables break down percentages in rows. 'Refused' and 'don't know' responses are excluded, so row totals may not add to 100%, and numbers of adults and sample may not add to the Scotland total for each cross-variable.

Overview of Tables

Figure 1: Overview of Tables

List of Tables and Figures

Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2013

Figure 1: Overview of Tables

1 Core Health Questions

Figure 2: Percentage of people reporting self-assessed "Good" or "Very good" general health by sex and age group, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles, and tenure

Table 1.1: Self-assessed general health

Figure 3: Percentage of people reporting a long-term limiting condition by sex and age group and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles

Table 1.2 Limiting long-term health condition

Figure 4: Smoking rates by sex and age group and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles

Table 1.3: Smoking

2 Core Crime and Police Questions

Figure 5: Proportion of people who perceived a reduction or no change in local crime rate by Local Authority

Table 2.1: Perception of local crime rate

Figure 6: Scotland-level police confidence indicators, ranked by proportion of people responding 'very' or 'fairly confident'

Figure 7: Proportion of adults 'very' / 'fairly' confident or 'not very' / 'not at all' confident in the police to prevent crime (question A) by highest qualification, deprivation, economic activity and household tenure

Figure 8: Proportion of adults 'very' / 'fairly' confident or 'not very' / 'not at all' confident in the police to prevent crime (question A) by country of birth, ethnic group and religion

Figure 9: Proportion of adults in each Local Authority confident in police to prevent crime

Table 2.2: Confidence in police to prevent crime

Figure 10: Proportion of adults in each Local Authority confident in police to respond quickly to calls and information from the public

Table 2.3: Confidence in the police to respond quickly to calls and information from the public

Figure 11: Proportion of adults in each Local Authority confident in police to deal with incidents as they occur

Table 2.4: Confidence in the police to deal with incidents as they occur

Figure 12: Proportion of adults in each Local Authority confident in police to investigate incidents after they occur

Table 2.5: Confidence in the police to investigate incidents after they occur

Figure 13: Proportion of adults in each Local Authority confident in police to solve crimes

Table 2.6: Confidence in the police to solve crimes

Figure 14: Proportion of adults in each Local Authority confident in police to catch criminals

Table 2.7: Confidence in the police to catch criminals

3 Core Household Questions

Table 3.1: Household type

Table 3.2: Household tenure

Figure 15: % households with access to one or more car, by deprivation and rurality

Table 3.3: Car access

4 Core Equality Questions

Table 4.1: Country of birth

Table 4.2: Ethnic Group

Table 4.3: Religion

Figure 16: Proportion of adults identifying as LGB by age and sex

Table 4.4: Sexual orientation

5 Core Education and Economic Questions

Figure 17: Proportion unemployed by deprivation, age and ethnic group

Table 5.1: Economic activity

Figure 18: Percentage of adults with degrees or professional qualifications by age, deprivation, country of birth and current economic activity

Table 5.2: Highest achieved qualification

6 Technical Notes

Table 6.1: Numbers of sample and effective sample pooled from the source surveys

Table 6.2: Grouping of ethnicity in the SSCQ

Table 6.3: Grouping of religion in the SSCQ

An Official Statistics publication for Scotland

Annex A. Comparison with Census

Table A.1: Tenure of Scottish households

Table A.2: Number of cars accessible by household members

Table A.3: Country of birth of adult population

Table A.4: Ethnicity of adult population

Table A.5: Religion of adult population

Table A.6: Self-assessed general health

Table A.7: Economic activity

Table A.8: Highest achieved qualification

Annex B. Comparison of the pooled surveys

Table B.1: Self-assessed general health by survey (row % and margin of error)

Table B.2: Current smoker (row % and margin of error)

Table B.3: Long-term limiting health condition (row % and margin of error)

Table B.4: Perception of local crime rate (row % and margin of error)

Table B.5: Confidence in the Police to… (row % and margin of error)