Scottish Government

Living In Scotland: An Urban-Rural Analysis Of The Scottish Household Survey

CHAPTER TWO: GENERAL HOUSEHOLD AND INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS

INTRODUCTION

This Chapter serves as a background to the rest of the report, presenting a profile of households and individuals within the six-fold urban-rural classification. Key elements of the household 'profile' are: household type, the presence or absence of children, the working status of households, the number of cars available to households, housing tenure and property type. As regards individuals (random adult interviewees) the profile includes age structure, marital status, educational qualifications and length of residence in current house.

HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS

Household Type

Sampled households were classified into a number of types, according to their size, age, sex and generational composition. Definitions are presented in Appendix 2. The household type profiles shown in Table 2.1 show some significant variations between rural and urban areas. These seem to be indicative of life-cycle migration flows between the different residential environments. For example, single person (non-pensioner) households were much more numerous in urban areas - particularly large urban areas, where they represented 21% of households - and less common in both accessible rural and remote rural areas (11%). This is probably attributable to migration of young singles from rural to urban areas, e.g. to take up further/higher education or employment opportunities.

Table 2.1 Household Type by Area

At the other end of the life cycle, rural areas generally contained slightly higher proportions of older, smaller households (Figure 2.1). These usually equate to pensioner couples, and the highest concentrations (18% of sampled households) were found in remote rural areas. This may partly be a consequence of the selective out-migration of younger people, and partly a result of the in-migration of recent retirees. Accessible small towns also had an above average proportion of these small, older households, possibly reflecting their convenience as retirement locations, either for urban couples seeking small town quality of life, or for older pensioners from more rural/remote areas seeking a home within a shorter distance of daily services.

Figure 2.1 Types of Household in Urban, Small Town and Rural Scotland

31% of sampled households in remote small towns had children, a proportion slightly above the Scottish average. The relatively low concentration (27%) of such households in the remote rural areas might suggest a process of local selective migration, driven by the preference of families with children to be close to schools and leisure opportunities. The above average proportion of families with children in accessible rural, accessible small towns, and 'other urban' areas, may also be partly indicative of such a process. It is also the 'flip side' of the flow of young (childless) single households from the countryside and small towns into the large urban areas, where their presence reinforces the impact of "family life cycle" out-migration, boosting the proportion of childless households to almost three-quarters.

Household Working Status

Household working status is closely related to household type. Table 2.2 therefore controls for this interaction by presenting key combinations of household type and household working status in each type of area. The most common combinations (accounting for 10% or more in any area) are shown in bold.

Table 2.2 Employment Status and Household Type Combinations by Area

The most common household type/work status combination across Scotland as a whole was the non-working pensioner. This combination was better represented in urban than rural Scotland (Figure 2.2). Strangely, older couples who were not working accounted for a higher proportion of households in small towns and rural areas. Perhaps this combination incorporates a number of recently retired couples, free to re-locate for lifestyle reasons.

Figure 2.2 Employment Status and Household Type Combinations, Urban, Small Town and Rural Scotland

In both the accessible rural areas and accessible small towns the most important combination was the 'couple both working, with children'. Similarly childless working couples were more common in small towns and rural areas, and slightly more so in accessible than remote areas.

The relatively high proportion of both working and non-working single adult households in urban areas reflects the drift of young people to the cities either in search of or to take up offers of, employment.

Car Ownership

38% of Scottish households sampled had no car. However there was considerable variation between areas (Table 2.3), ranging from almost half (49%) of those in large urban areas to just one in five (19%) of those in rural areas. This is perhaps not surprising given the fact that due to the longer distances involved and the lack of public transport options, cars are generally considered as a necessity rather than a luxury in rural areas. Rural households were also more likely to have two or three cars. Chapter 5 provides additional analysis of the significance of car access in relation to convenience to services.

Table 2.3 Car Ownership by Area

Housing Tenure

62% of the Scottish households sampled were owner-occupiers or mortgage holders, 31% rent their property from a social landlord, and 5% rent from a private landlord. However, tenure differed markedly by area, with a larger proportion of households in remote rural areas owning their homes outright, and more in accessible and urban areas buying their home with a mortgage or loan. At the two extremes, four in ten people in remote rural areas owned their homes outright compared with two in ten of those in both large and other urban areas. Rural and remote areas were also characterised with higher levels of private renting and lower levels of social renting than urban and accessible areas. These differences undoubtedly reflect the historical development of housing policies and the 'third sector' in Scotland.

Table 2.4 Housing Tenure by Area

Housing Type

Property type differed by area (reflecting land values past and present), with detached housing more common in rural and remote areas, terraced houses and flats in small towns and 'other urban' areas, and flats dominant in large urban areas (Table 2.5).

Table 2.5 Housing Type by Area

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RANDOM ADULT INTERVIEWEE

Age Structure And Long Term Illness

Table 2.6 is the first of a series of tables showing the characteristics of the 'random adult' interviewee. Although these sample data should only be seen as a rough indicator (the 2001 population census data, due for release shortly will be a 'superior' source), there are clear urban-rural and accessible-remote contrasts. The urban-rural difference is perhaps most clearly illustrated in Figure 2.3, which shows that urban Scotland had a much younger age distribution than rural Scotland. The greatest difference is in the 45-59 age group, suggesting that in this life cycle stage urban-rural (return?) migration begins to be dominant over rural-urban flows. Later on the difference was less marked, perhaps because some elderly people return to urban areas to live in sheltered accommodation or closer to younger relatives.

Table 2.6 Age Structure of Random adult by Area

Figure 2.3 Age Structure in Urban, Small Town and Rural Scotland

Across Scotland, a surprisingly large proportion of all respondents reported a limiting long standing illness or disability (24%). This average obscures interesting variations: 25% in the other urban areas, between 22%-23% in small towns, and 20%-22% in rural areas. This rural - small town - urban contrast may reflect both the imperative for those with long-term health problems to be close to specialist health service facilities, and possibly some psychological 'well-being' factors associated with life in large cities.

Marital Status

Marital status patterns (Table 2.7) reflect both age structure differences and property types/values. Thus the large urban areas had the largest proportion of single and divorced people, while married people accounted for up to two thirds of the random adult interviewees in the small towns and rural areas.

Table 2.7 Marital Status by Area

Educational Qualifications

The proportion of random adult interviewees with no educational qualifications (Table 2.8) was highest in the remote rural areas, at 27% (although small sample size means that this difference is not statistically significant). At the other extreme the rural interviewees (including those in remote areas) were more likely to have a degree or a professional qualification than either those living in small towns or in 'other urban' locations. The relatively larger proportion of interviewees from large urban areas who had a degree reflects the presence of Higher Education establishments.

Table 2.8 Educational Qualifications by Area

Occupation/Social Class

For those currently or recently in employment, the SHS classifies respondents' social class. The modest variation between urban and rural Scotland (Table 2.9) probably reflects (in part) the ability to pay for commuting from an attractive residential rural environment into cities or small towns. Thus interviewees in managerial occupations were most common in rural areas (both accessible and remote). Another important consideration is access to a reasonable sized labour market (in the case of employees) or (in the case of self employed) a market for services. Reflecting this, skilled workers (both manual and non-manual) tended to be more common in small towns, and 'other urban' areas.

Table 2.9 Occupation/Social Class by Area

Length Of Residence In Present House

Length of residency in present house is a useful indicator of residential stability. It is capable of highlighting dynamic areas where people move frequently (whether locally or in from further afield) and more stable areas where a large proportion of residence have been in the same house for a decade or more. Generally speaking the large urban areas of Scotland seem to fall into the former category, 34% of the sampled random interviewees having moved in the past 4 years (Table 2.10), compared with the average for the Scottish sample as a whole of 31%. In the rural areas and small towns 22% or more had lived at the same address for more than 31 years (Scottish average 20%).

Table 2.10 Length of Residence in Present House

Appendix 2 provides further data and analysis of the Scottish population and in particular the distinctive characteristics of the working age population, older adults (over 50), lone parents, and adults with a long-standing illness or disability.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The overall message from this overview of the SHS data on urban and rural areas is that there are few, if any, differences between these areas which were not already known of or suspected.

• Tenure differed markedly by area (Table. 2.4): this was typified with more owner occupation (41% compared to national average 24%) and private renting (10% compared to 5%) and less socially rented housing (15% compared to 26%) in remote rural areas.
• Additionally, in relation to property type, there were more houses and fewer flats in rural areas (Table 2.5).
• Reflecting the different age profiles of the areas (Tables 2.1 and 2.6), individual adults in urban areas are more likely to be single than those in rural and remote areas.

• It is not possible to fully examine respondent's length of residence in an area. However, with regard residence in their present house, urban areas show higher proportions of people who had lived at their current address for less than 1 year, and rural areas more people who had lived in their home for over 30 years (Table 2.10).
• Accessible rural areas and remote rural areas contain a higher proportion of people in the managerial social class than urban areas (Table 2.9).

The profile of educational qualifications did not vary notably by area (Table 2.8).