Measuring progress - Economy

Percentage of residential and non-residential addresses where superfast broadband is available. Find out more about this indicator.

The percentage of residential and non-residential premises where superfast broadband is available increased from 87% in 2017 to 92% in 2018.

Data breakdowns

This indicator can be broken down by local authority area and urban/rural breakdown. Urban/rural breakdown can be viewed below whilst local authority can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder. 

Latest Update: 07 August 2024

This indicator shows Scotland's carbon footprint expressed in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Find out more about this indicator.

Scotland’s carbon footprint reduced by 11.5 per cent between 2019 and 2020. 

Scotland’s carbon footprint in 2020 was 48.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂e).  This is a reduction of 11.5 per cent over the year (from 55.1 MtCO₂e in 2019) and 40.0 per cent lower than peak levels during the calendar year 2007 (81.2 MtCO₂e).  

Important information

Given the complexity and modelled nature of the data it is difficult to formally isolate the impact COVID had on the latest year (2020), however it is clear that transport (aviation, personal travel, etc.) was heavily suppressed by COVID.

2020 covered the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the national lockdowns and travel restrictions. This impacted consumption-based emissions, especially on emissions from transport generated directly from households, which reduced by 24.4 per cent in 2020, and the emissions associated with reduced household spend on air travel, recreation, and restaurants.

These estimates rely on a range of, mainly national accounts, data which themselves have significant lead-times, most notably the Scottish Input-Output tables for which 2020 data were released on 29 November 2023.  In order to model the entire economy and estimate all the detailed industry flows of goods and services, Input-Output Tables require the use of final figures from a wide range of sources including business surveys and UK National Accounts information. As a result, National Input-Output Tables are usually compiled several years after the year to which they relate.  Consequently, the lag in the carbon footprint is “baked-in” and is unlikely to improve significantly.

Latest update: 07 August 2024

The difference (percentage point) between GDP growth rate and the previous three year average. Find out more about this indicator.

The annual rate of change of GDP in Scotland in 2023 was 0.1% and the average annual GDP growth rate over the previous three years was 4.9%, giving a difference of -4.8%.

This indicator is designed to show whether the most recent calendar year of GDP is an improvement or a worsening given the level of growth that might be expected, (the average growth of the previous three years). 

During the lockdowns associated with COVID-19, in 2020 and 2021 many industries ceased work. This led to the largest annual decline in recorded Scottish GDP in 2020 (-12.0%), followed by the two largest ever annual increases in 2021 (9.2%) and 2022 (5.9%). These three unprecedented years will affect this indicator as either the year being reported on or as one of the three reference years from 2020 to 2025. 

Because this indictor cannot currently work as intended, by showing whether the current level of growth is better or worse than the growth that might be expected, no direction of travel arrow will be assigned.

Latest Update: 07 August 2024

Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate: proportion of the adult working age population that is actively trying to start a business, or that own/manage a business which is less than 3.5 years old.  In order to improve the usefulness of this indicator for making policy decisions, the TEA rate is now, for the first time, measured as a 3-year rolling average. Find out more about this indicator.

The Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) 3-year rolling average rate in Scotland increased by 0.6 percentage points between 2020-2022 and 2021-2023 to 9.1%. The 3-year rolling average TEA rate has increased by 3.9 percentage points since 2004, the first year for which comparable data is available.

Despite a continuing difficult business environment caused by challenging global economic circumstances, the 3-year rolling average of Scotland’s Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate in Scotland maintained, at 9.1%.

Data breakdowns

This indicator can be broken down by age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. these breakdowns are available as charts below.

Greenhouse gas emissions as a percentage change achieved from the baseline figure in 1990. Find out more about this indicator.

In 2022, Scotland’s GHG Account for assessing progress to statutory targets, indicated a reduction of 50.0 per cent, compared to a target of a 53.8 per cent reduction.  As a result, the emissions reduction target was not met in 2022.

Important information

In 2022, Scottish source emissions of the basket of seven greenhouse gases were estimated to be 40.6 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e). This level of emissions is essentially unchanged from the position in 2021; with a very slight reduction of 0.1 per cent in the latest year.

 However, the stable level of net emissions between 2021 and 2022 belies a substantial amount of volatility at the sectoral level.

There was a very large reduction in emissions in the Buildings and product use sector of 1.2 MtCO2e in 2022, with a combination of elevated fuel prices and relatively mild temperatures at the start of 2022 being principally responsible for this drop. More modest reductions were seen in Agriculture (-0.3 MtCO2e) and Industry (-0.1 MtCO2e).

However, these reductions were almost entirely offset by increases in emissions in all other sectors.  International Aviation and shipping showed an increase in emissions of 0.7 MtCO2e and Domestic transport increased by 0.3 MtCO2e.  Both of these increases principally relate to recovery from the impact of the COVID restrictions on transport.  Increases of 0.2 MtCO2e were also seen in Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and Electricity supply.  Fuel supply emissions increased marginally by 0.1 MtCO2e, and a very minor increase was observed in waste emissions.

In September 2019, the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 attained Royal assent.  This act included a  new method of assessing performance against statutory emissions-reduction targets which was recommended by the Committee on Climate Change. 

As a result of this change, which took effect from 2018 onward, this NPF indicator technically involves a discontinuous time-series from 2018 onwards. However, targets and emissions have both been adapted to mitigate the impact of these changes.

Statistics on Scottish greenhouse gas emissions are reviewed every year, and the whole historical data series is revised to incorporate methodological improvements and new data.  It is therefore not appropriate to compare the Inventory from one year with that from another – the 1990-2022 Inventory represents a single consistent data series going back to 1990 (excluding 1991-1994 and 1996-1997, where there are no Scottish figures). 

There are uncertainties associated with all estimates of greenhouse gas emissions. Although for any given year considerable uncertainties may surround the emission estimates for a pollutant, it is important to note that trends over time, and decarbonisation relative to a historical baseline, are likely to be much more reliable.

In 2020-23, the total household income of the top ten percent of the population as measured by the Palma ratio was 34% higher compared to that of the bottom forty percent. This compares to 21%, 20% and 18% higher incomes in the three previous periods and is the highest the ratio has been since 2007-10

Care should therefore be taken in interpreting the recent increase in the palma ratio as the sample size is lower than in previous periods and results may be volatile. 

The data used for this measure is usually a three-year rolling average. For example, 2017-20 covers the survey years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.  However, the subsequent periods only contain data from two years as 2020-21 is excluded due to issues in carrying out face to face interviews during the height of the pandemic. 

More information is available in the poverty statistics report.

This indicator cannot be meaningfully broken down by equality characteristics. However, the related indicator “relative poverty” shows which groups in the population are more likely to have lower incomes than others.

The value, in GBP millions, of Scottish exports (excluding oil and gas). Find out more about this indicator.

In 2019, the value of Scotland’s international exports (excluding oil and gas) stood at £35.1 billion. This represents an increase of 3.4% on the previous year when Scottish international exports were valued at £33.9 billion. Exports increased in almost every year between 2010 and 2019 (2014 was the exception) and in 2019, were 43.0% higher than in 2010.

The total value of Scotland’s international exports increased between 2010 and 2019 from £24.5 billion to £35.1 billion, respectively. This is an increase of 43.0% over this period (an average of 4.1% per year).

Latest Update: 05 July 2023

The Natural Capital Asset Index (NCAI) monitors the quality and quantity of terrestrial habitats in Scotland, according to their potential to deliver ecosystem services now and into the future. It is a composite index, based (i.e. equal to 100) in the year 2000. 

Due to changes in the methodology of some of the underlying biodiversity data some historical headline values of the NCAI have changed slightly, although the general trends remain the same. Find out more about this indicator.

The NCAI was 102.7 in 2021 – unchanged from its 2020 value and 0.2 points higher than its 2018 value. It has remained relatively stable since detailed monitoring began in 2000.

NatureScot will continue to work with stakeholders, including the Scottish Government, to refine the NCAI methodology and data.

The trends by ecosystem service type (Provisioning, Regulation and Maintenance. and Cultural) largely mirror the trend shown by the overall Natural Capital Asset Index.

This indicator can be broken down by category and habitat. Breakdowns can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.

Scotland's Rank for productivity against key trading partners in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Find out more about this indicator.

In 2020 Scotland was ranked in 16th place (out of 38 countries) for productivity levels amongst OECD countries. There has been no change in ranking in the latest year.

The Scottish Government has an ambition to reach the top quartile of OECD countries in terms of productivity. Scotland’s productivity has remained in the second quartile since 2000, and has been at 16th position in each year since 2008.

Scotland’s productivity rank among OECD member countries has been maintained at 16th in 2020. Productivity levels in Scotland were 82.9% of the lowest level in the top quartile (Austria).

This indicator measures Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) as a percentage of GDP. Find out more about this indicator.

Total research and development spending as a share of GDP was estimated at 1.66% for Scotland in 2019, the same share as in 2018.

Over the longer term spending on research and development has increased, from an estimated 1.24% of GDP in 2007 to 1.66% of GDP in 2019.  The increase in spending since 2007 has been driven by a rise in Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) expenditure.

In 2019, the sector with the highest spending on research and development was the business enterprise sector (representing 0.84% of GDP), followed by the higher education sector (0.69% of GDP), government (0.11% of GDP) and private non-profit organisations (0.03% of GDP)

Data breakdowns

This indicator can be broken down by sector, and can be viewed on the Equality Evidence Finder.

Important Information

We have put a pause on the updating of the ‘Spend on Research and Development (R&D)’ national indicator until more work can be carried out to quality assure the underlying source data.

This national indicator measures Scotland’s Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GERD as a share of GDP is taken from the annual Scottish Government (SG) GERD publication. GERD includes R&D undertaken by business enterprise (BERD). The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been leading a redevelopment project for R&D statistics. The first phase of the project concluded with the publication of the latest ONS Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) estimates, which reflect significant methodological changes. There is currently uncertainty over the robustness of the detailed breakdowns of the new BERD estimates, which includes the data for Scotland. The ONS have put a temporary pause on the National Statistics status of the detailed breakdowns of BERD until the second stage of the redevelopment project completes in 2023. The National Statistics status of the Scottish Government (SG) GERD publication has similarly been put on pause. More detail is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/gross-expenditure-on-research-and-development-scotland-2020/