Scottish Household Survey 2020 - telephone survey: key findings

Section seven - Environment

The results of the SHS 2020 telephone survey are not directly comparable to SHS results for previous years. Please see Introduction for more detail.

80% of adults felt that climate change is an immediate and urgent problem. This view was more common among younger adults (Table 7.1) and adults who live in less deprived areas (Table 7.3).

12% of adults believed that climate change is more of a problem for the future.

68% of adults lived within a five minute walk from an open green or blue (water) space (Table 7.12).

Adults living in remote rural areas were more likely than those living in large urban areas to live within a five minute walk of an open green or blue (water) space.

79% of adults visited the outdoors at least once a week (Table 7.10).

Disabled adults were less likely to visit the outdoors at least once a week than non disabled adults.

There was also variation by area deprivation. Adults living in the 20% least deprived areas were more likely to visit the outdoors at least once a week (83%) than those living in the 20% most deprived areas (68%) (Table 7.5).

Adults living in remote rural areas were more likely to visit the outdoors frequently than those living in large urban areas (Table 7.6): 87% of adults living in remote rural areas visited the outdoors at least once a week or more, compared to 77% of adults living in large urban areas.