National Statistics of the number and proportions of people living in private households with an equivalised household income below various poverty thresholds. For commentary and charts, please find the [full report on gov.scot](https://data.gov.scot/poverty/). The different poverty datasets refer to different subgroups of the population. Datasets are available for: * all people * children (this dataset) * working age adults * pensionable age adults * all adults * single adults More detail for each dataset and the available breakdowns follows further below. Figures are presented as three-year rolling averages to ensure robust time series analyses. Ethnicity and religion breakdowns are presented as five-year averages due to small sample sizes. Note that ethnicity and religion estimates are particularly volatile. The reason for this is that ethnic and religious composition of the population are not accounted for in the survey weighting process, and therefore the ethnic and religious composition of the population is not accurately captured. Where estimates are suppressed due to small sample size this is marked with an asterisk (\"*\"). Where estimates are between 0 and 0.5% this is marked as \"[low]\". Where estimates are missing for other reasons this is marked with a hyphen (\"-\"). Other reasons include changes in the methodology, or data being unavailable in some years. The income measure used is equivalised net disposable income before and after housing costs. The before housing costs measure is income from all sources (including earnings, benefits, tax credits, pensions, and investments) after deductions for income tax, national insurance contributions, council tax, pension contributions and maintenance payments. The after housing costs measure further deducts housing costs such as rent and/or mortgage payments. Equivalisation sums the income of all householders, adjusts it to reflect the composition of the household, and applies the resulting income to all householders. Private Scottish Households refers to all households that are not communal establishments such as hostels, prisons or hospitals, for example. The median is the middle value when the household income of all individuals in the UK are ranked in order. Sixty percent of the median is an internationally recognised poverty threshold. Different poverty indicators measure different aspects of poverty. Relative poverty: Individuals living in households whose equivalised income is below 60% of UK median income in the same year. This is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth of incomes in the economy as a whole. Absolute poverty: Individuals living in households whose equivalised income is below 60% of inflation adjusted UK median income in 2010/11. This is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are seeing their incomes rise in real terms. Severe poverty: Similar to relative poverty, but with a threshold of 50% of UK median income in the same year. This is a measure of deeper poverty, identifying people in households further below the poverty line. Relative and severe poverty (disability adjustment): Some illnesses and disabilities incur additional living costs. The poverty measures do not normally consider this. Research shows that additional costs associated with disability vary greatly in level and nature. There is no general agreement on how to measure these costs. In this measure, any payments in Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Personal Independence Payments were deducted from total household income. These benefits are paid as a contribution towards the additional living costs for disabled people. This income is excluded from total household income, and a new poverty line based on the adjusted incomes is calculated. Combined low income and material deprivation: measures living standards of children, and refers to the inability of households to afford basic goods and activities that are seen as necessities in society. Pensioners' material deprivation: Pensioner material deprivation is different to other measures of poverty, including the child low income and material deprivation measure. It does not only consider low income. It also captures other barriers to accessing goods and services, such as poor health, disability and social isolation. Material deprivations statistics for 2021-24 are not available due a change in the way the questions were asked on the 2023-24 questionnaire. Data for this period is marked with a hyphen (\"-\"). Breakdowns will be provided on the open data platform when there is more years' data available. Further information on the changes to the material deprivation questions from 2023-24 can be found here. The data source is the Department for Work and Pensions' Family Resources Survey (Households Below Average Income dataset). Working age adults are defined as all individuals aged 16 and over but below state pension age, except unmarried 16 to 19 year-olds in full-time non-advanced education, who are considered children. Adults are defined as all working age and pensionable age adults. For further information on the methodology used to create these statistics, please see the [poverty methodology pages on gov.scot](https://www.gov.scot/publications/poverty-in-scotland-methodology/). More poverty analysis is available on the [poverty pages on gov.scot](https://www.gov.scot/collections/poverty-and-income-inequality-statistics/). AVAILABLE POVERTY DATASETS [Poverty (all people)](http://statistics.gov.scot/data/poverty-all-people) Relative, absolute, and severe poverty both, before and after housing costs, broken down by: * Ethnicity * Household disability status * Number of children in the household * Tenure * Urban / rural class * Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation decile [Poverty (children)](http://statistics.gov.scot/data/poverty-children) Relative, absolute, and severe poverty, and combined low income and material deprivation both, before and after housing costs, broken down by: * Age of child * Age of youngest child in the household * Age of mother * Ethnicity * Family employment status * Household disability status * Household work status * Number of children in the household * Single parenthood * Tenure * Urban / rural class * Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation decile [Poverty (working age adults)](http://statistics.gov.scot/data/poverty-working-age-adults) Relative, absolute, and severe poverty both, before and after housing costs, broken down by: * Family employment status * Household work status * Tenure * Urban / rural class * Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation decile [Poverty (pensionable age adults)](http://statistics.gov.scot/data/poverty-pensionable-age-adults) Relative, absolute, and severe poverty both, before and after housing costs, and material deprivation, broken down by: * Tenure * Urban / rural class * Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation decile [Poverty (adults)](http://statistics.gov.scot/data/poverty-adults) Relative, absolute, and severe poverty both, before and after housing costs. The adult population combines the working age and the pensionable age populations. Broken down by: * Age * Family type * Marital status * Religion * Sexual orientation [Poverty (single adults)](http://statistics.gov.scot/data/poverty-single-adults) Relative, absolute, and severe poverty both, before and after housing costs. The single adult population contains adults who share the household with no other adults only. Broken down by: * Household type and gender NOTES ON COVID-19 IMPACT ON DATA * The pandemic severely affected data collection and as a result, data from 2020/21 was not used to produce any of the three-year- or five-year averaged estimates. This means, for example, that the three-year periods 2018-21, 2019-22 and 2020-23 only contain data from two financial years each. The latest statistics for 2021-24 revert to a 3-year average. However, although we have 3 years' worth of data, the pooled sample is around a third less than in 2017-20 due to response rates being lower since the pandemic. Results are therefore subject being more volatile than in the past. * Material deprivation: Estimates of pensioner material deprivation, and children in combined low income and material deprivation around the pandemic should be treated with caution. This is because the associated years cover a time when families were less able to undertake certain activities, and not necessarily because they couldn't afford to, and changed how people responded to the material deprivation questions. NOTES ON BREAKDOWNS Age (children and adults datasets) * Note that poverty is measured at a household level. Everyone in the same household is considered either in poverty or not in poverty. This makes it difficult to measure the poverty rate by age or gender of an individual person if they share the households with others. For example, the age analysis in the adult dataset includes adults in both, single- and multi-person households. But we know that the trend that the youngest adults have the highest poverty rates holds true for single-adult households as well. Ethnicity (all people and children datasets) * Ethnicity data relates to all people in a household and is based on the ethnicity of the adult with the highest income. * Different ethnic groups have been combined into one for this analysis, as sample sizes are too small to reliably report on individual groups. * Please be aware that ethnic composition of the population is not accounted for in the survey weighting process, and therefore, poverty estimates are volatile and apparent trends not always reliable. Family employment status (children and working age adults datasets) * The term 'family' here refers to the core family in a household, consisting of one or two adults and their dependent children if any. A household may contain more than one family. Family type (adults dataset) * The term 'family' here refers to the core family in a household, consisting of one or two adults and their dependent children if any. A household may contain more than one family. * 'Pensioner couples' include working-age adults who are in a couple with a pensioner. * 'Single' adults in this analysis refer to single-adult families, not single-adult households. In some cases, single adult families may share a household with other families. This differs from the analysis in the 'Household type and gender' worksheet, where single adults are those who share the household with no other adults. Household disability status (all people and children datasets) * The way in which information on disabled people is collected changed several times during this timeseries. This causes breaks in the timeseries between 2001/02 and 2002/03, between 2003/04 and 2004/05, and between 2011/12 and 2012/13. Since 2012/13, disabled people are identified as those who report any physical or mental health condition(s) or illness(es) that last or are expected to last 12 months or more, and which limit their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. Therefore, care needs to be taken when considering long-term trends. * Since the last break in the methodology caused a large change in the size of the disabled population, the estimated numbers in poverty before and after the break cannot be directly compared and no three-year averaged data is available during the break. * Data on disabled children is available from 1995/96. Household type and gender (single adults dataset) * The term 'single' here refers to adults who are sharing a household with no other adults. This differs from the analysis in the 'Family type' breakdown, where single adults may share the household with other families. Marital status (adults dataset) * 'Adults' includes working-age adults and pensioners. * 'Single' refers to adults who have never been married or in a civil partnership, and are not living with a partner. * 'Separated' refers to adults who are married or in a civil partnership, but are not living together because of estrangement. * 'Married / Civil Partnership' includes couples who are temporarily living apart (e.g. due to serving in the armed forces). Religion (adults dataset) * Due to sample sizes, three-year averages of these statistics are not available. * 'Adults' include working-age adults as well as pensioners. * Different religious groups have been combined into one for this analysis, as sample sizes are too small to reliably report on individual groups. * A time series is not available. This is because religious composition of the population is not accounted for in the survey weighting process, and therefore, poverty estimates are volatile and apparent trends not reliable. Sexual orientation (adults dataset) * Different groups have been combined into one for this analysis, as sample sizes are too small to reliably report on individual groups. The 'Other' group contains adults who reported to be 'Gay / lesbian', 'Bisexual' or 'Other'. * Many respondents did not report their sexual orientation. This group is fairly large and therefore included as its own category.
In 2021, previously published datasets underwent a minor methodological revision to capture all income from child maintenance. This led to small changes in household income and small adjustments to some poverty estimates. Therefore, some poverty estimates for 1994/95 to 2018/19 that were published in 2021 may not exactly match those in the previously published poverty dataset (now obsolete). The revision did not affect any trends in poverty.
The Family Resources Survey is a sample survey including approximately 2,000 households in Scotland in more recent years. The responses of these households are weighted and grossed up to be representative of all private households in Scotland. Coming from a sample survey, the estimates are subject to sampling error. More details about the methodology including measurement uncertainty can be found on the [poverty methodology pages on gov.scot](https://www.gov.scot/publications/poverty-in-scotland-methodology/).
Official Statistics of the number and proportions of children in poverty. Various poverty measures and breakdowns are available.
Commentary about these estimates is available in the [annual poverty report](https://data.gov.scot/poverty/). For further information on the methodology used to create these statistics, please see the [poverty methodology pages on gov.scot](https://www.gov.scot/publications/poverty-in-scotland-methodology/).
Data is not published where the estimate would be based on a sample size less than 100. These cases are marked with an asterisk. Percentages have been rounded to 5 decimal points, and counts have been rounded to the nearest 10,000.
The estimates in this dataset can be used to identify trends over time; however, as the data is taken from a sample survey, there are confidence intervals surrounding the estimates, and year-on-year changes are unlikely to be statistically significant. Confidence intervals are published as part of the [annual poverty report](https://data.gov.scot/poverty/). For direct comparisons across the UK please refer to the relative low income measures in the [Household Below Average Incomes publication](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/households-below-average-income-hbai--2#latest-release) published by the Department for Work and Pensions. For local child poverty data please refer to the [Children in Low Income Families publication](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics) by the Department for Work and Pensions. The Scottish estimates in this UK-wide dataset is calibrated to the number of children in relative poverty before housing costs in Scotland.
These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The designation of these statistics as National Statistics was confirmed in May 2012 following a compliance check by the Office for Statistics Regulation. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. For further information on the methodology used to create these statistics, please see the [poverty methodology pages on gov.scot](https://www.gov.scot/publications/poverty-in-scotland-methodology/).
These statistics will not be updated till June 2027 due to a programme of methodological improvements to the FRS data. The March 2026 poverty statistics publication contained revisions to the poverty statistics going back to 2021/22. This followed a methodological change which links FRS data with administrative records on social security benefits provided by DWP and tax credits. In March 2027 data linkage will be applied back to 2018/19 and grossing to the 2022 census will be implemented. The data will be uploaded on the open data platform thereafter, thus providing a stable time series for users once a number of changes are bedded in.
The Family Resources Survey, on which these estimates are based, is the official source of Scotland's poverty, household income and income inequality statistics. The estimates are used to monitor progress in reducing poverty, child poverty and income inequality.
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