Cost of living
Latest update: 08 May 2024
Cost of living refers to the percentage of net income spent on housing, fuel and food by households in Scotland and is measured as a three-year rolling average. Find out more about this indicator.
Median percentage of net income spent on housing, fuel and food over the 3 year period 2019/20 – 2021/22 was 25.0%.
Cost of living refers to the percentage of net income spent on housing, fuel and food by households in Scotland and is measured as a three-year rolling average. The cost of living has remained relatively stable since 2013/14 – 2015/16 when measurement began.
Data breakdowns
This indicator can be broken down by age, sex, disability, ethnicity and marital status which can be viewed in the charts below.
This indicator can also be broken down by income, households with and without children, and household type, which can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.
- The cost of living is considerably higher for households in the lowest three income deciles compared to those with higher incomes.
- The cost of living is similar among households with and without children overall.
- In low income households, the cost of living is slightly lower for households with children. In higher income households, the cost of living is similar for households with and without children.
- The cost of living is highest for single parent households, followed by single adult households without any children. Households with two or more adults (with or without children) have a lower cost of living.
Important information
The data shown in the chart largely precedes the marked increases in living costs reported through other sources and in the media.
This NPF indicator uses a three year average which runs up to March 2022. The data used in this indicator largely precedes the recent marked increases in living costs.
Due to several factors, UK Inflation rose rapidly from late 2021 hitting a peak of 11.1% in October 2022, resulting in financial pressures for certain households. Although the economic picture now appears to be slowly improving, the effects of higher costs are still being felt acutely by many people. Analysis by Scottish Government shows this is affecting particular households, services and sectors of the economy very differently.
The Cost of Living Crisis in Scotland: analytical report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
Users may also be interested in results from the Office for National Statistics’ Opinions and Lifestyles omnibus survey, which collects data on experience of cost of living pressures. Results are published quarterly, including a report on financial pressures at Impact of increased cost of living on adults across Great Britain - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Data from the survey, including breakdowns for Scotland are available at Impact of increased cost of living on adults across Great Britain - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Performance Maintaining
The cost of living is slightly higher for households with household heads aged between 16 and 44 compared to older households. Costs of living slightly decrease with increasing age of the household head.
The cost of living is higher for households with female household heads compared to those with male household heads.
The cost of living is higher for households with a disabled household head compared to those without a disabled household head.
The cost of living is higher for households where the highest income householder (household head) is mixed race, Asian, Black, or other, compared to households with a White household head.
The cost of living is highest for households with a single, or divorced or separated household head. Married or civil partnered households have the lowest cost of living.
Food insecurity
The proportion of adults reporting that, at some point in the previous 12 months, they were worried they would run out of food because of a lack of money or other resources. Find out more about this indicator.
The percentage of adults worried about running out of food has remained the same between 2018 and 2019, with 9% of adults reporting being worried about running out of food.
Data breakdowns
This indicator can be broken down by age, sex, and socio-economic status. These breakdowns can be viewed in the charts below.
This indicator can also be broken down by equivalised income, household type, limiting longstanding illness on the Equality Evidence Finder. For these breakdowns, since data collection began in 2017,
- food insecurity has consistently been more prevalent among adults with a limiting longstanding illness (18% in 2019) than adults with a non-limiting longstanding illness (6% in 2019) and no limiting illness (5% in 2019).
- food insecurity has consistently been more prevalent among adults living in low income households. In 2019, 23% of adults with household incomes in the bottom quintile (less than £14,444/year) reported experiencing food insecurity compared to 3% of adults with household incomes in the top quintile (more than £49,400/year).
- the prevalence of food insecurity has consistently varied by household type. Households with the highest prevalence are single parents (31% based on combined 2018 and 2019 data) and working-age single adults (20% based on combined 2018 and 2019 data).
Important information
Data for this indicator is available for 2020. However, please note that the 2020 results are not directly comparable to results for previous years, which is why the indicator shows "performance to be confirmed". Data for 2020, and further information can be viewed here.
Performance to be confirmed
Since data collection began in 2017, food insecurity has consistently varied by age, with a higher prevalence among younger people (16-44) than older people (75+).
The prevalence of food insecurity between men and women is comparable. In 2019, there was no difference between men and women (9%).
prevalence of food insecurity has consistently been higher among adults living in the most deprived areas compared to those living in the least deprived areas. In 2019, there was a 10pp gap in the prevalence of food insecurity among adults in most deprived areas and the least deprived areas.
Persistent poverty
Latest Update: 05 July 2023
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.
12% of the population lived in persistent poverty after housing costs in 2017-2021. This means they were in relative poverty after housing costs for at least 3 out of the 4 years in the reference period. This compares to 12%, 13% and 12% in the three previous periods, suggesting that performance is maintaining.
Data breakdowns
This indicator is available broken down by age below the chart. This breakdown can also be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.
Important information
Note that previously published estimates have been revised as more accurate data has become available. The Understanding Society dataset gets revised routinely when households re-enter the longitudinal sample and data gaps can be filled. This can affect persistent poverty estimates.
More information is available in the persistent poverty report.
Performance Maintaining
Children have been consistently more likely to be in persistent poverty compared to working-age adults and pensioners.
Relative poverty after housing costs
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.
21% of the population lived in relative poverty after housing costs in 2019-22, following a broadly stable trend with 19% of people in poverty in the three previous periods. More information is available in the poverty statistics report.
Data breakdowns
This indicator can be broken down by age, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status. These breakdowns can be viewed in the charts below or on the Equality Evidence Finder.
Performance Maintaining
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.
Men and women have consistently had a similar poverty risk.
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.
The annual poverty report shows that people in the “Asian or Asian British” and “Mixed, Black or Black British, and Other” groups have consistently been more likely to be in relative poverty compared to people in the “White – British” and “White – Other” groups.
The annual poverty report shows that Muslim adults have consistently been more likely to be in relative poverty compared to adults of various Christian faiths, other religions, or no religion.
The poverty rate has been consistently higher for LGB+ adults compared to straight / heterosexual adults, see annual poverty report.
People in more deprived areas tend to have a higher poverty risk. Relative poverty rates by SIMD decile are available on the open data platform.
Satisfaction with housing
Latest update: 06 February 2024
The percentage of households who report being either "very satisfied" or "fairly satisfied" with their house or flat. Find out more about this indicator.
Overall ratings of housing satisfaction were high, with 90.7% of households reporting they are “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat in 2022, similar to levels of satisfaction reported over the last ten years.
4.9% (± 1.05%) of all households reported that they were “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” and 4.2% (± 0.98%) of all households (around 110,000) reported that they were “very” or “fairly dissatisfied”.
Of the 110,000 households that reported they were “very” or “fairly dissatisfied”, 71.3% (around 80,000) reported dissatisfaction with the condition of their accommodation. with 35.3% of all dissatisfied households (around 40,000) citing the poor state of repair.
Data breakdowns
This data can be broken down by Age, Sex, Ethnicity, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and urban/rural classification. These breakdowns can be viewed in the charts below and in the Equality Evidence Finder.
This indicator can also be broken down by tenure and local authority. These can be found on the Equality Evidence Finder and information noted below:
- 94.8% of households that were owner occupied reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This is higher than for households in the private rented (88.3%) and social rented (79.3%) sectors. All disaggregations will be influenced by the tenure of the household. For example, households where the highest income householder (HIH) is younger will be less likely to be in owner occupation (with higher levels of housing satisfaction) and more likely to be either private rented or social rented housing (with lower levels of housing satisfaction).
- The sample size for this question (around 2,680) is too small to produce robust estimates for local authorities. The question this indicator is based on was asked of a subsample of roughly one-quarter of all SHS respondents (around 10,550 in 2022).
Important information
This indicator uses data from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). The 2020 and 2021 surveys were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Enforced changes to the mode of approach and data collection mean that the results from these years are not comparable with those from earlier years. The changes to the mode of approach resulted in a lower response rate (11% in 2021 compared to 63% in 2019) and impacted the composition of the achieved sample, e.g. private renters were less likely to participate. The data was collected by telephone/video interviews rather than from a face-to-face interview. This introduced some mode effects.
The 2022 SHS returned to broadly the pre-pandemic approach (2019 and earlier). However, there remains a significant drop in the response rate (44% in 2022 compared to 63% in 2019), owner occupied households continue to be over-represented relative to social and private rented households in the achieved sample, and around 30% of interviews continue to be undertaken remotely by telephone/video.
This will inevitably have an impact on data quality and effect comparisons over time for some measures from the SHS. Given that satisfaction with housing is highest for owner occupied households, we would expect the over-representation of these households in the achieved sample to result in an overestimate of satisfaction with housing for all households. Though for this indicator there are no obvious concerns , given the high level of overlap in margins of error for 2019 and 2022 estimates.
Performance Maintaining
95.6% of households where the highest income householder (HIH) was aged 60 or over reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This is higher than for households where the HIH is aged 16 to 34 (84.4%) or 35 to 59 (89.3%).
91.6% of households where the highest income householder (HIH) is male reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This was similar to households where the HIH was female (89.7%).
91.3% of households where the highest income householder (HIH) was white Scottish reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This was similar for households where the HIH was white other British (91.6%), white other (85.2%) and from a minority ethnic group (86.5%).
Because of the small sample sizes for the white other and minority ethnic groups, the differences are not statistically significant.
For the purposes of this analysis, ‘white other’ includes Irish, Polish, Gypsy/Traveller, Roma, Showman/Showwoman and other white ethnic groups and ‘minority ethnic groups’ includes mixed or multiple, Asian, African, Caribbean or Black, Arab or any other ethnic groups.
90.4% of households where the highest income householder (HIH) was of no religion reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This was similar to households where the HIH’s religion was Roman Catholic (90.5%) or other Christian (91.0%) but lower than for households where the HIH’s religion was Church of Scotland (94.0%) and higher than for households where the HIH was of another religion (74.6%).
94.7% of households in the 20% least deprived areas reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This is higher than for households in the 20% most deprived areas (82.5%).
90.4% of households in urban areas reported that they were “very” or “fairly satisfied” with their house or flat. This is similar to households in rural areas (92.3%).
Unmanageable debt
The Unmanageable Debt indicator measures the percentage of households where the household is falling behind with bills or credit commitments and either making excessive debt repayments or is in arrears on monthly commitments (liquidity problems); or where the household is burdened by high debt levels relative to annual income (solvency problems). Find out more about this indicator.
The estimated proportion of households in unmanageable debt was slightly higher by 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous period, and had shown no notable change in the preceding period. This suggests that performance is maintaining, under the methodology for this National Indicator.
Data breakdowns
This indicator can be broken down by age, sex, disability, ethnicity, marital status, and socio-economic status. These breakdowns can be viewed in the charts below.
For breakdowns by employment, household, tenure, children, education, and rural and urban areas, see the 2006-2020 Wealth in Scotland Publication for more information.
Important information
The Office for National Statistics has revised the data in the previous waves of the Wealth and Assets Survey. Therefore, previous indicator values have been revised.
Performance Maintaining
Wealth inequality
The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality where 0% expresses perfect equality (every household has the same wealth) and 100% expresses maximal inequality (one household has all the wealth and all others have none). This measure has fluctuated over the longer period, and longer term trend over the past 15 years is broadly stable. Find out more about this indicator.
Wealth inequality in households in Scotland as measured by the Gini coefficient was at 64% in 2018-2020, compared to 62% in 2016-2018 and 60% in 2014-2016. This meets the NPF criteria for worsening performance.
Performance Worsening