Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2025: Technical Report

1 The Scottish Social Attitudes series

The Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey was launched by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) in 1999, following the advent of devolution. Based on annual rounds of interviews of between 1,000 to 1,500 people drawn using probability sampling (based on a stratified, clustered sample)^[1], it aims to facilitate the study of public opinion and inform the development of public policy in Scotland. In this it has similar objectives to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, which was launched by ScotCen’s parent organisation, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in 1983. While BSA interviews people in Scotland, these are usually too few in any one year to permit separate analysis of public opinion in Scotland (see http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/ for more details of the BSA survey).

SSA has been conducted annually each year since 1999, except for in 2008, 2018 and 2020. Prior to 2020 the survey was conducted face-to-face with a random sample of adults. In 2021 one version of the survey was conducted as a telephone survey and the other as an online opinion panel survey rather than face-to-face, as a result of coronavirus restrictions in place at the time. From 2023 to 2025 the surveys have been undertaken using a push to web design. A random sample of addresses from across Scotland are selected from the postcode address file after locations had been stratified by a range of key demographic and other characteristics. Letters, containing a unique identifier and details of how to log on, were sent to selected addresses as well as subsequent reminders. The letter invited up to two adults per household to respond. In 2025, 3,043 people took part from September to November.

The SSA survey has a modular structure. In any one year it will typically contain a range of modules on different topics (a full module is considered to be 40 questions). Funding for its first two years came from the Economic and Social Research Council, while from 2001 onwards different bodies have funded individual modules each year. These bodies have included the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and various charitable and grant awarding bodies such as the Nuffield Foundation and Leverhulme Trust.