Wellbeing economy toolkit: supporting place based economic strategy and policy development

Annex D - Data and evidence resources

Useful sources of data and evidence that could help policy makers further explore evidence of place-based wellbeing outcomes, drivers, and the indicators in the local-level Wellbeing Economy Monitor. They span a wide range of data relating to Scotland’s National Outcomes, and are grouped into broad categories relating to various aspects of wellbeing (including people, environment, place, participation, equality and other).

General

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) provides a wide range of data at the local level.

Office for National Statistics Local Statistics

Office for National Statistics Subnational indicators explorer

The statistics.gov.scot website hosts 293 linked datasets and six downloadable files and weblinks which you can browse and download in multiple formats. Many of these datasets include local authority level data.

Understanding Scottish Places (USP) brings together a range of data about towns in Scotland. The platform offers a mechanism for understanding the similarity of places across Scotland. Deliberately designed to avoid a simplistic ranking of places as better or worse, USP focuses on the shared characteristics of towns.

People

The Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) Profiles present a range of indicators to give an overview of health and its wider determinants at a local level. The profiles give a snapshot of health for each area and highlight variation through a variety of different visualisations. The ScotPHO website also includes an overview of the key data sources used within the website, including Scottish national data schemes, surveys (cross-sectional and longitudinal) and international data sources.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) provide data on local population, life expectancy, births, deaths, migration and dwellings. This data can be viewed in their local authority profiles.

The Population Programme Dashboard supports the Population Taskforce to understand the demographic challenges in Scotland. It presents demographic data, including enabling comparisons between local authority areas.

The Scottish Government provides a directory of statistical publications relating to Scotland’s national and local child poverty, including a dashboard that can be used to monitor local child poverty drivers.

Environment

NatureScot data services provide links to a range of data and information sources covering topics such as Protected Areas, Natural Spaces, Standing Waters and other environmental issues.

Zero Waste Scotland provide research and evidence on waste and the circular economy.

Air Quality Scotland provide data on air pollution in local authorities. They use a 1-10 index, divided into four bands, to provide detail on air pollution levels in a simple way – Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI)

The UK Department for Transport monitor the shift towards greener transport and travel by publishing statistics on the number of lower emission vehicles and the availability of electric vehicle charging devices in local authorities. Also, the Scottish Government publish statistics on the total amount of petrol and diesel consumed in local authorities.

Place

The Scottish Government provide a directory of statistical publications relating to Scotland’s national and local housing, including affordable housing, new housing supply, rents in the private sector and social housing.

The Scottish Government provide a collection of documents relating to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) including statistics/rankings for datazone areas on: income, employment, education, health, access to services, crime and housing. The SIMD ‘local and national share calculator’ identifies the share of datazones in the 20% most deprived datazones in Scotland in local authorities, parliamentary constituencies and multi-member wards.

Ofcom report on the percentage of homes in local authorities with access to broadband and mobile networks in their annual ‘Connected Nations’ report.

The Scottish Government provide a summary of statistics for Scotland broken down into remote rural, accessible rural and the rest of Scotland. The publication, ‘Rural Scotland: Key Facts’ is a compendium publication comparing and contrasting statistics on key policy topics such as people and communities, services and lifestyle, economy and enterprise.

Participation

NOMIS is a service provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). On the NOMIS website statistics are published relating to population, education, society, income and the labour market, at national and local levels. These include data from current and previous censuses, the Annual Population Survey, the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and the Business Register and Employment Survey. The NOMIS website can also produce Labour Market profiles at local authority level.

The Scottish Government’s annual publication ‘Scotland’s Labour Market: People, Places and Regions’ uses data from the Annual Population Survey to provide national and local statistics related to employment by equalities, work patterns, types of work, underemployment, industry/occupation/sector work, education, skills and training.

The ONS frequently publish local disposable household income data.

Equality

The Equality Evidence Finder brings together the latest statistics and research for Scotland (nationally and locally) across different themes for age, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and transgender status. The Equality Evidence Finder is updated monthly with a summary of the key official statistics, social research and National Performance Framework equality analysis. Links to further datasets, statistics and research are provided to help find the full range of available equality evidence for Scotland.

The Scottish Government maintains a collection of statistics and analysis relating to poverty, household income and income inequality.

Other

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is an annual survey that provides robust evidence on the composition, characteristics, attitudes and behaviour of private households and individuals as well as evidence on the physical condition of Scotland’s homes. Its large sample size allows analysis of all Scotland’s local authorities. The topics covered in the survey include demographics, housing, neighbourhoods, economic activity, finance, internet, physical activity, local services, environment, volunteering, culture, and childcare.

The What Works Centre for Wellbeing provides links and advice on data and evidence relating particularly to subjective wellbeing.

Co-operatives UK monitor a range of data sources to provide the most comprehensive intelligence available on the co-operative sector. They provide a continually updated dataset on all registered co-ops broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Government publish a ‘Community Ownership in Scotland’ dataset annually. This dataset details the extent of community ownership in local authorities, including the number of assets owned by community groups.

The Scottish Government’s ‘Growth sectors statistics’ database provides statistics on local growth rates and jobs in the local Arts and Culture sector. Currently, the Creative Industries sector is a temporary source for the Arts and Culture sector in the database. Work is underway to better develop indicators for the Cultural Economy in order to improve the measurement approach.

The Scottish Government provide a directory of statistical publications relating to Scotland’s economy organised by subject.

The ONS provide productivity (GVA per hour worked) and total economic output (GVA) data by local authority.

The Scottish Government produces a sub-Scotland economic statistics database. This database provides economic, business, labour market and population data for Scotland, and for areas within Scotland. Data are provided for a range of geographical areas within Scotland, including local authority areas, travel to work areas and areas around the River Clyde.

The Scottish Government also provide a directory of statistical publications relating to local business and innovation. This includes ‘Businesses in Scotland’ which provides statistics on the number of local businesses relative to population, and also ‘Business enterprise research and development (BERD)’ which provides statistics on local BERD (total, per head or as a share of GDP).

The ONS publish a ‘Business demography’ dataset, which they update annually, which provides data on births, deaths and survival rates of businesses by local authority.

The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, through their UK Innovation Survey, collect and publish ITL2 level data on the percentage of businesses that are innovative, performing R&D and collaborating with other business.

The Scottish Futures Trust has published research (Measuring and Valuing the Inclusive Growth Impact from Infrastructure Investment) which aims to enhance and improve the evidence base of how investment in infrastructure supports and helps deliver inclusive growth, including by recommending a suite of indicators and metrics that can be used for appraising and prioritising resources.