Total levels of need and unmet need for care, support and help with everyday living, in the Scottish population aged 65+

Figure 1: Most older adults in Scotland (78%) said they did not need support with everyday living, and 22% said they needed or received support.

Bar chart showing the percentage of adults aged 65+ living in Scotland in 2023-24 by their stated need for support.

12% of all older adults said they received support and did not report any unmet need.

3% said they didn’t receive any support despite needing it. A further 7% said they received support but reported unmet needs.

In total 9% reported unmet support needs. (Note that this total is not 10% - this is due to rounding. Please see the Rounding part of the Data and Methodology section for more information).

Figure 2: Just over half of older adults who said they needed or received support did not report any unmet needs (57%). However, 13% said they didn’t receive any help, despite needing it.

Bar chart showing the percentage of adults aged 65+ living in Scotland in 2023-24 who said they needed or received support, by their self-reported unmet need status.

Of those older adults who said they needed or received support the majority (57%) did not report any unmet needs.

However, 30% reported receiving some support that did not fully meet their needs and a further 13% reported receiving no support despite needing it.

In total, 43% of older adults who needed or received support reported an unmet need.