Social environment: introduction

How we behave, our relationships, our gender and ethnic group, our education and work, the conditions and communities in which we live, and how we feel about ourselves are all elements of the social environment. These elements overlap and interact with elements of the physical environment to influence our health and impact on how long we live.

Given its clear link with health, the social environment has featured heavily in recent policy documents e.g. the 1999 White Paper, Towards A Healthier Scotland (each chapter of which refers to the Social Environment), Our national health: A plan for action, a plan for change (2000), the 2003 Partnership Agreement and more. There is also an obvious link between the social environment and inequalities in health, and this is reflected in the Scottish Executive's Closing the Opportunity Gap targets,  the majority of which relate in some degree to the Social Environment.

The fact that the social environment encompasses such a large number of different overlapping topics means that there is a similarly large number of different data sets relevant to its measurement and understanding. However, there are also important features of the social environment which are very difficult to measure, especially using routine survey or administrative data: e.g. well-being, social capital and related concepts. The data presented within these web pages, therefore, are merely examples of a small number of indicators relevant to the social environment, and as such, barely scratch the surface of this important aspect of health and well-being.