Scottish Household Survey 2024 findings: neighbourhoods and communities report

Annex B: Questions on neighbourhoods and communities in the Scottish Household Survey

The 2024 SHS asked participants the following questions about neighbourhoods and communities:

• Thinking now about the neighbourhood you live in, how would you rate it as a place to live? [very good/fairly good/fairly poor/very poor]
• To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements about your neighbourhood [strongly agree/tend to agree/neither agree nor disagree/tend to disagree/strongly disagree]
  • This is a neighbourhood where people are kind to each other
  • This is a neighbourhood where most people can be trusted
  • There are welcoming places and opportunities to meet new people
  • There are places where people can meet up and socialise
  • This is a neighbourhood where people from different backgrounds get on well together
  • This is a neighbourhood where local people take action to help improve the neighbourhood
• How strongly do you feel you belong to your immediate neighbourhood? [very strongly/fairly strongly/not very strongly/not at all strongly]
• I would now like to ask about how involved you are with other people living in this neighbourhood. How strongly do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements [strongly agree/tend to agree/neither agree nor disagree/tend to disagree/strongly agree]
  • If I was alone and needed help, I could rely on someone in this neighbourhood to help me
  • If my home was empty, I could count on someone in this neighbourhood to keep an eye on my home
  • I feel I could turn to someone in this neighbourhood for advice or support
  • In an emergency, such as a flood, I would offer to help people in my neighbourhood who might not be able to cope well.
  • How often, if at all, do you meet socially with friends, relatives, neighbours or work colleagues? [every day or most days/a few times a week/once a week/a few times a month/once a month/a few times a year/very rarely/never]
  • How much of the time during the past week have you felt lonely? [None or almost none of the time/some of the time/most of the time/all or most of the time/don’t know]

How safe do you feel walking alone in your neighbourhood after dark? Would you say you feel…? [very safe/fairly safe/a bit unsafe/very unsafe/don’t know/not applicable]