Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2022-25
This report presents estimates of the proportion of people, children, working-age adults and pensioners in Scotland living in poverty, and other statistics on household income and income inequality.
5 Working-age adults
Working-age adults tend to be less likely to be in poverty compared to children. They comprise all adults up to the state pension age.
5.1 Relative poverty
Relative poverty for working-age adults has been broadly stable since the nineties, when reporting began, at around 18% to 20% after housing costs.
The relative poverty rate in 2022-25 was estimated to be 18% after housing costs, and 15% before housing costs. This equates to 600,000 and 500,000 working age adults in poverty respectively. Further years of linked data are required to confirm the most recent trend and care should be taken in making direct comparisons before and after the linkage break.
5.2 Working poverty
Having paid work is an effective way out of poverty, and those families where all adults are in full-time work have a low poverty risk. In-work poverty can occur when it does not pay well, or when someone is unable to work enough hours.
Figure 8 shows the make-up of working-age adults in poverty. The share of working-age adults in poverty who lived in working households steadily increased between 2011-14 (52%) and 2018-21 (62%).
Recent linked data shows that in 2022-25, 63% of working-age adults in relative poverty after housing costs were living in a household where someone was in paid work (380,000 working-age adults each year). Further years of linked data are required to confirm the most recent trend and care should be taken in making direct comparisons before and after the linkage break.
5.3 Absolute poverty
After a decline from the mid-nineties to 2006-09, absolute poverty amongst working-age adults remained broadly stable.
The most recent linked data, using a 2024/25 base year, shows that in 2022-25, 18% of working-age adults were in absolute poverty after housing costs, and 16% before housing costs. This means that in 2022-25, there were 620,000 working-age adults each year in absolute poverty after housing costs, compared to 530,000 before housing costs. The increase in absolute poverty rates, following the break, is expected because real incomes in the 2024/25 reference year are higher than in 2010/11.