Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2022-25

2 What you need to know

Statistics in this report are based on data from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). This survey has been the main source of information on household income and poverty in Scotland since 1994/95. Poverty and income inequality trends in the UK are available from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Households Below Average Income publication. This publication is accompanied by separate publications on persistent poverty and a summary of these data with respect to the four child poverty targets measured on a single-year basis up to 2024/25.

2.1 Poverty measures

The Scottish Government measures different aspects of poverty with different indicators. The most commonly used poverty indicator in Scotland for showing trends is relative poverty after housing costs. Other poverty measures in this report are absolute poverty, child low income and material deprivation and pensioner material deprivation. These are included in additional charts throughout the report.

Unless otherwise stated, statistics are based on net income adjusted for household size. Net income is income from earnings, social security payments and other sources minus taxes. All incomes are in 2024/25 prices, so the purchasing power is comparable over time. Estimates are rounded to the nearest £1 for weekly incomes, £100 for annual incomes, 1% for proportions and ratios, and 10,000 for populations. Poverty is defined at the household level. If the household income is below the poverty threshold, all people within the household are assumed to be in poverty.

2.2     Hosting of the poverty publication

This year this publication and the accompanying “Persistent Poverty in Scotland” statistical release have been moved from data.gov.scot to the Scottish Government website. Users might notice some changes to how the publication looks, but the main trends are still included, and the full range of detailed information is still available to download in spreadsheets (see under “Supporting documents” for download).

We welcome feedback from our users to inform content of the next publication.

2.3     Development of Family Resources Survey data

As previously announced in the HBAI release strategy, these statistics have been revised from 2021/22 following a methodological change which links FRS data with administrative records on social security benefits provided by DWP and tax credits. In summer 2026, a follow up publication will include revisions for further years back to 2018/19.

The new method aims to correct for the known undercount of benefit receipt reported through the survey. The method replaces most survey‑reported benefit income and tax credits with data derived from administrative records. It also adds benefit income for households who did not report benefits in the survey, but appear in the administrative records, and removes them if they are not in the administrative data but were originally reported through the FRS. 

Devolved Scottish disability benefits were not included in the linkage this year. However, DWP have taken steps to make sure Scotland-specific disability benefits, Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment, marry up more closely to known caseloads. The methodology that was developed last year for imputing Scottish Child Payment remains in place.

Further information on the new methods can be found in the background notes and in DWP’s publication.

2.4   Official statistics in development and future plans

This publication has been badged as official statistics in development to highlight to users both the methodological changes outlined above and planned changes to the statistics next year. The devolved administrations (including the Northern Ireland Department for Communities and the Welsh Government) have adopted the same approach. DWP’s UK outputs remain accredited official statistics due to having a larger sample and therefore higher levels of confidence in the estimates.

The official statistics in development status recognises the revisions scheduled for summer 2026 when further data, linked back to 2018/19, is published. In addition, there will be other changes in 2027, when the way the statistics are scaled to population totals (known as grossing) is updated. This update will incorporate the latest census population data and may result in further revisions to the poverty rates. Future changes are announced in the FRS release strategy, which is updated periodically as plans develop.

The development of data linkage to benefits will improve the quality of data in the longer term although there will be a period of flux. It is our intention that the official statistics in development badge is temporary pending the development phase. This acknowledges that methods are in transition, enables clearer guidance to users on what is changing and why, and transparently signals uncertainty in the estimates and any trend comparisons, with figures subject to revision as development continues. A letter confirming the change in designation has been published on the Office for Statistics Regulation website.

Users should be aware that because the FRS data developments have disrupted trends, we are publishing a shorter report this year. We have therefore not included charts showing poverty rates by child poverty priority groups or equality groups, though all statistics remain available in the accompanying spreadsheets. We will review publication content once a longer data series is available in March 2027 and we are better able to consider trends for population subgroups. Similarly, we have not presented charts on food security, but these results are still contained in the spreadsheets.

2.5    Change to absolute poverty reference year

Up until the March 2025 publication, the reference year for absolute poverty was 2010/11. However, due to the structural break introduced by the data linkage the reference year has been moved to 2024/25 and provides a more up to date position.

Absolute poverty statistics have been revised back to 2021/22 using the new 2024/25 base. Earlier data (before 2021/22) continues to use the 2010/11 series. Without changing the base year, recent estimates would be inconsistent, as they would compare linked-data years with a non‑linked reference year. When additional years of linked data are released in summer 2026, the 2024/25 based series will be revised back to 2018/19.

2.6     Presentation of three-year averages and single year estimates

Estimates are shown as three-year rolling (overlapping) averages, unless stated otherwise. Taking the average over three years reduces fluctuation due to sampling variation and shows trends and differences between groups more clearly.  Care should be taken to interpret trends since the introduction of linked data. 

The linkage discontinuity is clearly presented in the three-year averaged charts to include:

• The unaffected 3-year average back series from 1994-97 to 2018-21.
• A vertical dotted line to denote that from 2021/22 the linkage is introduced.
• The new series from 2020-23 to 2022-25 based on the linked data.
• Estimates for 2019-22 have not been presented as they include one year of linked data (2021/22) and one year of unlinked data (2019/20). Data from the pandemic year (2020/21) is excluded from Scotland level statistics due to issues with obtaining a robust sample.

Accompanying documents also clearly present the change. These are available to download from the “Supporting documents” section and include:

• One- and three-year estimates in excel tables. Lines have been added to clearly identify where the integration of administrative data starts. Similar to the chart presentation, estimates for the three-year period 2019-22 have been removed.
• The “Child Poverty Summary” shows progress against the Child Poverty Act 2017 statutory targets.  For the purposes of monitoring the absolute poverty target, 2010/11 remains the reference year as stated in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and a separate data series has been produced to support this.
• Additional spreadsheets show the impact on poverty rates comparing the estimates before and after data linkage. They also show the impact of changing the absolute poverty reference year and are available for the one- and three-year estimates.

2.7     Deep material poverty

This report includes the new “deep material poverty” measure for children.  This measure was developed by DWP to capture children experiencing a deeper level of poverty. It is one of the headline metrics for the UK Child Poverty Strategy but is not a statutory target measure for the Scottish Government. The initial estimate for Scotland is a two-year average, the period for which comparable questions are available. 

More information on this measure can be found in the background notes or DWP’s first release of these statistics.

2.8     Survey data and measuring uncertainty

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey and are therefore subject to sampling variation. We have published confidence intervals in accompanying spreadsheets to help users assess the uncertainty in the estimates.

For example, the child poverty rates for Scotland in the latest period can vary within a typical uncertainty range of plus or minus five percentage points, or plus or minus 50,000 children. This means for example, that the proportion of children in relative poverty is likely to be somewhere between 16% and 27%. And the number of children in relative poverty after housing costs is likely to be somewhere between 160,000 and 260,000 children. Poverty rates and numbers shown in this report give the central estimates only.

See the reliability section for more information on our confidence intervals.