The proportion of individuals living in private households with an equivalised income of less than 60% of the UK median after housing costs. Find out more about this indicator.

Find out more about how poverty in Scotland is measured, and how relative poverty is defined. 

19% of the population lived in relative poverty after housing costs in 2017-20, following a broadly stable trend with 19%, 20% and 19% of people in poverty in the three previous periods.

Children have consistently been the most likely to be in relative poverty, followed by working-age adults. Pensioners have been least likely to be in relative poverty in the last 15 years. More detailed age breakdowns are also available in the annual poverty report.

An ethnicity breakdown is not available as a time series, because the ethnic composition in the weighted sample is not robust enough. However, the latest estimates published in the annual poverty report show that people in the “Asian or Asian British” and “Mixed, Black or Black British, and Other” groups were more likely to be in relative poverty compared to people in the “White – British” and “White – Other” groups.

A religion breakdown is not available as a time series, because the composition of religious groups in the weighted sample is not robust enough. However, the latest estimates published in the annual poverty report show that Muslim adults were more likely to be in relative poverty compared to adults of various Christian faiths, other religions, or no religion.

People living in households where someone is disabled have consistently been more likely to be in relative poverty compared to those in households where no-one is disabled.

People living in urban areas have consistently been more likely to be in relative poverty compared those in rural areas.

This indicator can be broken down by age, disability, gender and urban/rural classification. These breakdowns can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.