Income and economy: key data sources
The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) maintains the SCROL web-site which was created to encourage the use of, and widen access to, the results of the 2001 Census in Scotland. In terms of employment and economic factors, this site has a wide range of tables including breakdowns of the population by social grade, economic activity, employment status, industry of employment, occupation and hours worked. The tables are made available at a range of geographies from health boards to output areas. The GROS provides a set of CDs with more detailed data tables and will also undertake ad hoc analyses on request for a fee. It is worth noting that income data have not been collected as part of the census up until now, although a question on income is being tested for inclusion in the 2011 census.
ScotPHO's New CHP profiles 2010 present a range of over 60 health related indicators for a range of geographies across Scotland. Data is presented at Community Health Partnership/Community Health and Care Partnerships, Health Board, local authority and intermediate zone level. Each profile provides a rich picture of both health determinants (e.g. education, employment, housing) and health outcomes (mortality, substance use, ill-health) at a local level. More information can be found on the CHP profile section of this website. Earlier profiles, including data for the 2008 community profiles, are also available - see Profiles: introduction.
DWP - Statistics and Research Section
The Statistics and Research Section of the Department for Work and Pensions web site contains a variety of statistical data, including an A-Z section on UK benefits data. Other subsections list benefits data by client group: disabled and carers; families and children; pensioners; working age. The site also provides a link to the Family Resources Survey which collects information on the incomes and circumstances of private households in the United Kingdom.
In addition, however, the DWP also produces the Households Below Average Income Data Set (HBAI), a data set derived from the UK Family Resources Survey, which aims to produce estimates of the proportion of the population in the UK living in poverty (as defined in a variety of different ways).
Incapacity Benefit (IB) Claimant Profiles
The Scottish Observatory for Work & Health has published Incapacity Benefit (IB) Claimant Profiles for fourteen geographies across Scotland. Each profile provides a range of data on IB claimants, including demographics, reasons for claiming, on and off flows, duration of claims and how these variables changed between 2000 and 2008. The profiles also contain IB claimant data for every neighbourhood/intermediate zone. In addition, an overview profile compares IB rates and on and off rates from 2000 to 2008 for all fourteen geographies plus Edinburgh and the Lothians.
NOMIS is a key web source for information on the economy, containing data on unemployment, employment, vacancies, VAT registered companies and survey data from the ABI (Annual Business Inquiry), the Labour Force Survey and the New Earnings Survey. Access to this data is free although access to the ABI data does incur a charge and is subject to a strict agreement on uses of the data.
Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion
The New Policy Institute and Joseph Rowntree Foundation manage the Poverty Site, which monitors poverty and social exclusion in the UK through a suite of 100 key indicators. Separate analysis of poverty and social exclusion in Scotland is also available on the site.
The principal purpose of the survey is to collect information in the areas of Social Justice and Transport. However a wide range of other topics are covered, and in relation to economic circumstances the survey collects figures on employment, training and unemployment (based on the highest income householder); and for households, figures on income, savings and borrowings, housing costs and financial concerns. A reduced survey data set, SHS Lite, can be obtained on request from Scottish Household Survey SHS Team.
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)
This index, which was created to provide an improved and updateable deprivation index for Scotland, identifies the most deprived areas across Scotland and is based on 38 indicators across seven individual domains of Income, Employment, Housing, Health, Education, Skills and Training, Geographic Access to Services and Telecommunications and Crime. SIMD 2009 is presented at data zone level, of which there are 6505, and provides a comprehensive picture of relative area deprivation across Scotland.
Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics
The SNS web site provides a wide range of economic related data mostly at a variety of different geographies (although local authority is the level at which the greatest range of data is consistently available), including: figures on employees by industry, business sites by industry, earnings, labour market indicators (of economic activity, unemployment, employment) and variety of benefits data.