Proportion of adults aged 16-64 with low or no qualifications at SCQF level 4 or below. Find out more about this indicator.

SCQF Level 4 refers to qualifications at, or equivalent to, National 4. In 2020, the proportion of people in Scotland aged 16-64  with low or no qualifications was 9.7 per cent, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points since 2019.

The proportion is at its lowest since the series began in 2007 and has decreased by 6.7 percentage points between 2007 and 2020.

In 2020:

• The proportion of those with low or no qualifications is higher in the younger (16-24) and older (50-64) age groups than the other age groups. Since the series began in 2007 there has been a decrease across all age groups, the biggest of which has been for 50-64 year olds (down from 25.4 per cent in 2007 to 13.0 per cent in 2020).
• The proportion of men with low or no qualifications (10.8 per cent) is higher than that for women (8.6 per cent). Since 2007, the proportion for women (down by 9.3 percentage points) has fallen at a faster rate than the proportion for men (down by 4.0 percentage points).
• The proportion of disabled people (using the Equality Act definition) aged 16-64 with low or no qualifications (19.1 per cent) is over twice as high as those who are not disabled (7.2 per cent). Over the past year, however, the proportion for those who are disabled has fallen at a faster rate (down 3.3 percentage points) than for those not disabled (down by 1.6 percentage points).
• The proportion with low or no qualifications is highest in the most deprived quintile and decreases as the level of deprivation decreases. The proportion is lower across all quintiles when compared to the previous year and also compared to when the series began in 2007.
• The proportion with low or no qualifications is higher amongst the white population aged 16-64 (9.7 per cent) compared with the minority ethnic population aged 16-64 (9.0 per cent). Over the past year the decrease in the proportion of the minority ethnic population aged 16-64 with low or no qualifications (down by 6.3 per cent) is higher than for the white population aged 16-64 (down by 1.7 per cent).

This indicator can be broken down by age, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and urban/rural classification. These breakdowns can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.