Overview of key data sources: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey

Organisation Responsible: Scottish Centre for Social Research.

Background and purpose: The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSAS) was developed in close co-ordination with the 1999 British Social Attitudes Survey and the 1999 Welsh Assembly Election Study. Parts of the questionnaires are identical or functionally equivalent in order to allow comparison between Scotland, England and Wales. The 1999 survey was its first round and in that year it also doubled as the Scottish Parliament Election Study.

The SSAS, like the British Social Attitudes series, aims to chart and interpret attitudes on a range of social, political, economic and moral issues. The questionnaire covers political behaviour and attitudes, a core section on social attitudes, and a thorough classification section. A separate module of questions dealing with the new electoral systems was fielded as part of the self-completion booklet.

The survey focuses mainly on people's attitudes, but also collects details of their behaviour patterns, household circumstances and work.

Survey years / frequency: The survey is conducted annually with 1999 the first in the series.

Survey content: Topics have included national identity, constitutional change, attitudes to public spending and social welfare, attitudes to sex, attitudes to transport, and religion. From 2002, the survey has contained a boosted rural sample to allow greater analysis within rural areas.

Target population: Adults aged 18 years and over resident in Scotland.

Sample size: Multi-stage stratified random sample of approximately 1,600 adults living in private households taken from the Postal Address File for the whole of Scotland, including north of the Great Glen.

Response rate: 61% in 2004.

Method of data collection: An hour-long face-to-face Computer Assisted Personal Interview with self-completion supplement.

Smallest geographical unit reported: Survey results are reported at the following levels - Scotland, parliamentary constituencies, local authorities or postal district, standard regions, wards and government office regions.

Availability of results and further information: The survey is designed in the spring of each year, with fieldwork taking place in the summer and a data set available at the end of the year. A conference giving preliminary findings takes place in March of the following year and a book reporting the survey findings is published at the end of that year. For further information on the survey and for survey publications see the Scottish Centre for Social Research website (see also the National Centre for Social Research website). The survey data are available from the UK Data Archive.