Scottish Social Attitudes 2025: attitudes to discrimination and positive action

Footnotes

1 Respondents were asked to indicate the impact of migrants on Scotland’s economy on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely bad and 10 is extremely good and on the impact on Scotland’s cultural life where 0 is undermined and 10 is enriched.

2 In 2006, 2010 and 2015, the survey asked about a gay man or lesbian which was updated in 2025 to ask about a gay, lesbian or bisexual person.

3 Ormston et al (2011): Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2010: Attitudes to Discrimination and Positive Action

4 Equality Act 2010 - Section 158 and Equality Act 2010 - Section 159

5 A full explanation of provisions is not included here. See sections 158(2)(a), (b) and (c) for full explanation of the provisions

6 EHRC (2014) ‘Your Rights to Equality at Work: Training, Development, Promotion and Transfer – Equality Act 2010 Guidance for Employees, Volume 4 of 6’: Equality Act 2010 Guidance for Employees

7 Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010 - Equality Act 2010 - Schedule 9

8 National Records Scotland (2024): Mid-2024 population estimates: Mid-2024 population estimates - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

9 Scotland Census (2022): Health, disability and unpaid care: Scotland’s Census 2022 - Health, disability and unpaid care | Scotland's Census

10 Scotland Census (2022): 2022 reports | Scotland's Census

11 National Records Scotland (2024): Mid-2024 population estimates: Mid-2024 population estimates - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

12 EHRC (2023) Equality and Human Rights Monitor 2023: Is Scotland Fairer?: Equality and Human Rights Monitor 2023: Is Scotland Fairer? | EHRC

13 Public Sector Equality Duty - Regulation 12 report: better performance proposals 2025-2029 (2025): Part 1: Introduction - Public Sector Equality Duty - Regulation 12 report: better performance proposals 2025-2029 - gov.scot

14 Equality Outcomes 2025-9: Equality Outcomes 2025-9

15 Disability equality plan - gov.scot

16 Hate Crime Strategy delivery plan 2023 to 2026: implementation review (2026): Hate Crime Strategy delivery plan 2023 to 2026: implementation review - gov.scot

17 This does not include those who identified as trans which was asked about in a distinct survey question in keeping with the approach taken in the Scotland Census 2022.

18 The question asks ‘Do you personally know anyone who…

1 …is from a different racial or ethnic background to you

2 …is gay, lesbian or bisexual

3 ...is trans

4 …is Muslim

5 …is Jewish

6 …has a mental illness like depression or bipolar’

19 The ‘Can’t choose’ option appeared alongside the first two statements when it originally appeared on a paper self-complete with ‘Can’t choose’ printed as an option. This was replicated in the on-line version.

20 Ormston et al (2011): Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2010: Attitudes to Discrimination and Positive Action

21 It should be noted that regression analysis does not demonstrate any form of causality. The term ‘key driver’ really means a strong association, independent of other associations included in the model. There may also be other factors which drive both of these attitudes that we have not captured in the model.

22 Respondents were also shown a definition: ‘Refugees are people who have been granted permission to live in Britain because they are fleeing war and/or persecution.’

23 Those belonging to one of the listed groups were not asked if they would be happy if a close relative married or formed a long-term relationship with someone from that group.

24 Someone with schizophrenia was not one of the groups asked about in relation to teaching, so suitability as a primary school teacher was not built into the model shown in Table 3.3.

25 In 2006, 2010 and 2015 the question asked about gay men and lesbians only, and also asked about forming a civil partnership. For 2025, bisexual and other sexualities were added, and reference to civil partnerships was dropped.

26 In 2006, 2010 and 2015 the question asked about gender reassignment, while for 2025 the question was about a trans person.

27 Some of these questions refer to ‘migrants’ and some to ‘immigrants,’ without providing respondents with definitions. The question wording was kept as it is to maintain comparability and reliability as these have been used previously on both the British and Scottish Social Attitude surveys (BSA and SSA). Whilst the terms migration and immigration are often used interchangeably in everyday language, it should be noted that there are differing definitions. Migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently in the new location. Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents.

28 In 2006, 2010 and 2015, the survey asked about a gay man or lesbian.

29 The questions were asked in random order, so half of respondents were asked about fathers first and half were asked about mothers first.

30 Respondents are not given any clarification or definition of the term ‘older people’.

31 Equality Act 2010 - Equality Act 2010 - Section 158

32 Equality Act 2010 - Equality Act 2010 - Section 159

33 Section 159 only applies if employers reasonably think that persons who share a particular protected characteristic suffer a disadvantage connected to that characteristic, or that participation in an activity by persons who share that characteristic is disproportionately low. In these circumstances, preference may be given to one candidate over another because the former has a particular protected characteristic, only where the two candidates are equally as qualified as each other (i.e. the “tie-break scenario”), the action is a proportionate means of achieving the aim of overcoming disadvantage or reducing under-representation, and provided that the employer does not have a policy of automatically treating persons who share a particular protected characteristic more favourably in connection with recruitment or promotion than persons who do not share it.

34 Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010 - Equality Act 2010 - Schedule 9

35 Irregular migration is crossing an international border without official permission but is not necessarily a crime.

36 Scottish Government (2025): UK Immigration White Paper 2025: Scottish Government proposals