Social capital and community wellbeing in Scotland

5: Conclusions

This research shows that social capital has decreased since 2013. This is particularly noticeable in national levels of volunteering, perceptions of democratic influence and power in neighbourhoods and communities, and feelings of loneliness.

Over the period of 2019 - 2022 (during the COVID-19 pandemic), people felt more postively about their neighbourhoods and neighbours. Further research is required to explore it what ways the pandemic affected people’s perceptions and how this was experienced for different groups and places. It remains to be seen if these positive changes will sustain over time.

Social capital is not evenly distributed across society, and there are large disaparities between geographical areas and population subgroups. This is particularly noticeable for disabled people, who experience lower levels of social capital across every measure.

These effects have large consequences for Scotland. These include increased demand on public sources of formal support from reductions in volunteering, the costs to public services and responders from increased mental health burden and reduced resilience and capacity to deal with future emergencies.