On this page:

Headline Results from the 2007 Scottish Household Survey

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

6. Income and Financial inclusion

Information is collected in the survey about household income and other financial areas such as savings and use of credit. It should be noted that the SHS is not designed to provide reliable statistics on average earnings. Household income in the SHS is the income of the highest income householder and partner only, and so is not directly comparable to the Family Resources Survey ( FRS) - the official source of income data in the UK. Once again, the SHS has questions on these topics only for selecting the data of particular groups, such as low paid people, for further analysis or for use as background variables when analysing other topics.

Single pensioner households have the lowest annual household incomes - 85% have an income of £15,000 or less per year with 15% having an income of £6,000 or under. Most single parent families (80%), single adult (78%) and older, smaller (70%) households have an income of £20,000 or less (Table 6.1).

Table 6.1: Net annual household income* by household type

Column percentages, 2007 data, Households

Single adult

Small adult

Single parent

Small family

Large family

Large adult

Older smaller

Single pensioner

All

£0 - £6000

10

3

3

1

1

3

5

15

6

£6001 - £10000

22

6

17

3

3

6

16

39

15

£10001 -£15000

26

11

35

6

8

12

29

31

20

£15001 - £20000

20

12

25

11

11

14

20

9

15

£20001 - £25000

12

15

11

14

14

13

13

3

12

£25001 - £30000

5

13

5

17

15

14

7

1

9

£30001 - £40000

4

21

2

27

23

23

6

1

13

£40001+

2

18

3

22

25

15

4

0

10

Total (income known)

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

Base

2,022

2,255

733

1,764

889

1,183

2,110

1,995

12,951

* Household income in the SHS is that of the highest income householder and their partner only

Almost 1 in 10 (9%) households say that they do not manage very well financially, have some financial difficulties or are in deep financial trouble (Table 6.2). While the percentage of households in these 3 categories increases as deprivation increases (16% in the most deprived areas), over 8 in 10 (83%) in the most deprived areas say they are at least getting by alright. This compares with over 9 in 10 (94%) who are at least getting by alright in the least deprived areas.

Table 6.2: How the household is managing financially this year by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile

Column percentages, 2007 data, Households

1 (most deprived)

2

3

4

5 (least deprived)

Scotland

Manage very well

9

13

18

23

29

18

Manage quite well

27

32

34

38

40

34

Get by alright

47

41

39

32

25

37

Don't manage very well

7

4

4

3

2

4

Have some financial difficulties

7

7

3

3

3

4

Are in deep financial trouble

2

2

1

0

0

1

Refused

1

1

1

2

0

1

Total

100

100

100

100

100

100

Base

1,756

1,880

2,096

1,889

1,744

9,365

From June 2007, this question was asked of half the sample. From January to May 2007, it was asked of all households.

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Page updated: Monday, June 9, 2008