Description:
This indicator shows the percentage of adults who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement about their neighbourhood, “there are places where people can meet up and socialise.”
Source of Data:
The data for this indicator is gathered from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). The SHS is a survey of households across Scotland, and provides reliable statistics over a wide range of topics.
This indicator is an indirect measure of the availability of places to interact in neighbourhoods based on respondents’ agreement with the statement: “there are places where people can meet up and socialise.”
The indicator's value is calculated as follows: Number of people who respond 'strongly agree’ + ‘tend to agree’ / Total adult population (based on SHS). The unit of measurement is the percentage of all random adults surveyed who respond 'strongly agree’ and ‘tend to agree’ with this statement.
The places to interact statistics in the 2022 SHS Report are at national level, with breakdowns available for different factors (for example: age, gender, qualification level of respondents, and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation).
Since 1999 the SHS has collected information on the characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of Scotland’s people, using face-to-face interviewing in people’s homes. Due to COVID restrictions, the 2020 and 2021 surveys were carried out over the telephone, rather than face-to-face, and published as experimental statistics. The change in mode introduced a response bias and a certain degree of measurement error which makes the 2020 and 2021 data difficult to compare with the 2022 survey and surveys prior to 2020, as one can’t necessarily discern where differences are a result of a different data collection method versus real changes in attitudes. The results of the 2022 survey have been published as Accredited Official Statistics for the first time since 2019. Therefore, the most recent valid comparison year is 2019.
Reports are available from the publications section of the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/
SHS data can be accessed via the online Data Explorer: https://scotland.shinyapps.io/sg-scottish-household-survey-data-explorer/
Definitions:
Neighbourhood is defined as "the street you live in and the streets nearby" (in urban areas) and as "the local area" (in rural areas).
Criteria for Change:
Evaluation of change is based on the actual results from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) which are presented in the SHS Annual Report where statistically significant changes are detected and reported.
The calculation of the statistically significant criteria for change use the SHS estimates and their base sizes to calculate an accurate test statistic (95% confidence interval) to compare against the absolute difference between the two estimates.
If there is no statistically significant difference then any change is likely due to variation in the data rather than actual change, so this is maintaining performance. Any statistical significant difference in either direction means that there is likely a real change that cannot be explained by variation in the data and we can confidently assign improving/worsening in these cases. This is with 95% confidence that it's a real change.
More information on confidence intervals and statistical testing can be found alongside the data tables: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2023/12/scottish-household-survey-2022-key-findings/documents/shs-2022-annual-report-tables-2-neighbourhoods/shs-2022-annual-report-tables-2-neighbourhoods/govscot%3Adocument/SHS%2B2022%2B-%2BAnnual%2BReport%2B-%2BTables%2B-%2B2%2BNeighbourhoods.ods
The approach to the 2020 and 2021 Scottish Household Survey (SHS) was revised due to COVID meaning that there was lower sample sizes, a change in the profile of respondents, and also potential mode effects. For these reasons, it is not possible to determine whether differences between the 2022 and 2021 / 2020 surveys represent genuine changes in views and experiences, or are due to changes in how the survey was carried out.
The results of the SHS 2022 survey are not directly comparable to SHS results for 2021 or 2020. As such, assessment of change in performance is based on 2022 and 2019.
A guide for the general methodology of indicators can be found here: https://www2.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/NPFChanges/Methodology