Publication - Statistics
Persistent poverty in Scotland 2010-2024
Estimates of the proportion of people living in persistent poverty in Scotland between 2010 and 2024.
3 Persistent poverty
3.1 All individuals
- Between 2020 and 2024, 11% of people were in persistent poverty after housing costs. Historical trends have shown broadly similar levels.
- Due to the sample boost being used in estimating the median income from 2022-2023 onwards, it means that trends before and after this cannot be directly compared. This has been represented in the chart (and following charts) with a vertical dotted line and a break in the time series line.
3.2 Children
- 17% of children were in persistent poverty after housing costs in 2020-2024.
- Persistent poverty estimates for children tend to fluctuate more than those for the full sample, in part due to the smaller sample size. Historically, persistent poverty rates for children have ranged between 12 and 19%.
- The estimate published in the previous release for the 2019-2023 period has subsequently been been revised down by 7 percentage points (from 23% down to 16%). As part of the routine quality assurance process of the Wave 15 (2023 and 2024) data, DWP noted that some of Wave 14 (2022 and 2023) values had seen an unusual amount of revision. It is understand that these were due to weighting revisions by the University of Essex. There will be further adjustments made to those weights when the next wave of data is released. It is therefore expected that there will be further revisions in the next publication.
3.3 Working-age adults
- Between 2020 and 2024, 10% of working-age adults were in persistent poverty after housing costs, similar to previous periods.
3.4 Pensioners
- Between 2020 and 2024, 9% of pensioners were in persistent poverty after housing costs. There has been little change over time in the proportion of pensioners in persistent poverty.
- Persistent poverty rates after housing costs were lowest for pensioners out of all groups presented.
- Unlike other groups, the before housing costs poverty rates for pensioners are higher than the after housing costs ones. This is because most tend to have a relatively low income, but also low housing costs as they own their own home.