About Scottish Social Attitudes

Each year ScotCen's Scottish Social Attitudes survey asks over 1,200 people what it's like to live in Scotland and what they think about how Scotland is run. Since 1999 we've been measuring and tracking changes in people's social, political and moral attitudes.

Used by the Government, journalists, opinion formers and academics, Scottish Social Attitudes series measures and tracks changes in people's social, political and moral attitudes in Scotland.

Helping the nation

We're a charity and we want our research to reach as many organisations trying to improve life in the UK as possible.

That's why ScotCen's Scottish Social Attitudes is freely available online. 

The 'gold standard' of survey series    

Every year, we ask people to take part in Scottish Social Attitudes on the basis of random probability sampling. This technique ensures that everyone has an equal chance of being picked to take part, so the results are representative of the Scottish population.

And because we repeat many of the same questions over time, we're able to identify real changes in people's social attitudes.

Funding

Scottish Social Attitudes is run by ScotCen Social Research and is made possible by the funding we receive from a variety of charitable and governmental sources each year. To find out more, please visit Funding SSA.

Methodology

Every year, we ask 1,200 - 1,500 people to take part in Scottish Social Attitudes on the basis of random probability sampling.

This technique ensures that everyone has an equal chance of being picked to take part, so the results are representative of the Scottish population.

And because we repeat many of the same questions over time, we're able to identify real changes in people's social attitudes.