The proportion of people in Scotland living in relative poverty after housing costs for three out of the last four years. Find out more about this indicator.

Persistent poverty rates were similar for children (10%), working-age adults (10%) and pensioners (11%).

Persistent child poverty saw a relatively large drop compared to previous estimates, and not all of this decrease is likely to be real.

Persistent poverty estimates do tend to fluctuate. They also get revised when households re-enter the longitudinal sample and data gaps can be filled.

However, some of the decrease is plausible in part due to increased financial support during the pandemic for some lower-income households.

At the same time, reduced earnings and job losses may have resulted in a lower median income. This may have led to a fall in the poverty line, and thereby a drop in the relative poverty rate.

More information is available in the annual report

While estimates are not available for all people, children with a disabled parent are known to be more likely to be in persistent poverty, see “Child poverty target measures by priority group.xlsx” here: Additional child poverty analysis 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This indicator can be broken down by age. This breakdown can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.