Health and Disability

NRS identified that there is a strong link between age, health, and disability, where older people are more likely to have a health problem or disability that limits their day to day activities. Despite the young age profile of the non-binary population (52.6% of non-binary people were aged 16 to 24), self-reported health and limiting health problems or disabilities were more common for the non-binary population compared to the rest of Scotland aged 16 and above.

General Health and Disability

When asked about general health, non-binary people were more likely to report ‘Bad or very bad health’ (11.3%) and ‘Fair health’ (22.2%) in comparison to the rest of Scotland aged 16 and above (8.2% and 16.5% respectively). The rest of Scotland was generally more likely to respond that they had ‘Very good or good health’, in comparison to non-binary people (75.3% and 66.4% respectively).

The Scotland’s 2022 Census also asked: Are your day-to-day activities limited because of a health problem or disability which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months? The question also asked people to include problems related to old age.

Overall, 15.9% of non-binary people said they had a health problem or disability that limited their day to day activities a lot and 30.6% said they were limited a little. In comparison, 12.3% of the rest of Scotland aged 16 and over said they had a health problem or disability that limited their day to day activities a lot and 14.9% said they were limited a little.

General Health and Disability by Age

While self-reporting poor health and limiting health problems or disabilities was generally more common for the non-binary population, differences are even more pronounced between young non-binary people and young people in the rest of Scotland.  

Young non-binary people aged 16 to 34 were 21.4 percentage points less likely to report ‘Very good or good health’ in comparison to the rest of Scotland aged 16 to 34. Young non-binary people were also 7.2 percentage points more likely to report ‘Bad or very bad health’ in comparison to the rest of young people in Scotland (Table 5).

Older non-binary people aged 35 and over were also less likely to report ‘Very or very good health’ in comparison to people in the same age group for the rest of Scotland (by 12.9 percentage points). However, the difference was not as pronounced as it was between younger age groups (Table 5).

Table 5: Comparing the general health of non-binary people and the rest of people aged 16 and above in Scotland, by age

Source: Scotland’s Census 2022

When comparing the reporting of long-term limiting health problems and disabilities, non-binary people aged 16 to 34 were roughly three times more likely to report a health problem or disability that limited their day to day activities a lot or a little, in comparison to the rest of Scotland aged 16 to 34 (45.7% compared to 14.2%) (Table 6).

Non-binary people from older age groups (35 and over) were also more likely to report a disability or health problem compared to the rest of Scotland aged 35 and older. Once again, the difference was not as pronounced as it was between younger age groups (Table 6).

Table 6: Proportion of non-binary people and the rest of Scotland that experienced disability or health problems, by age

Source: Scotland’s Census 2022

Long-term Mental Health Condition

NRS reported that the second most common type of health condition to be reported across Scotland was a mental health condition and that the percentage of people reporting a mental health condition saw the largest increase across condition types from 2011 to 2022.

More than half (55.9%) of the non-binary population reported a mental health condition. This is considerably higher than the rest of Scotland aged 16 and above, where 13.0% reported having a mental health condition.

This is even more pronounced when comparing young non-binary people to young people in the rest of Scotland. Over half of non-binary people aged 16 to 34 years old (58.4%) reported a long-term mental health condition. In comparison, less than a fifth (16.3%) of the rest of young people in Scotland aged 16 to 34 reported a mental health condition (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Proportion of non-binary people compared to the rest of Scotland aged 16 and above that reported a mental health condition, by age group

Source: Scotland’s Census 2022