Physical environment: maintenance
The maintenance of streets and public spaces, and conversely the presence of environmental incivilities such as litter and dog fouling, can affect how people use their neighbourhood. It also has an influence on neighbourhood satisfaction and perceptions of safety, and can have a bearing on social connections and neighbourliness within communities.
The Scottish Household Survey includes questions about respondents’ experiences of their neighbourhoods, and the distribution of this by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile. Respondents’ experience of litter in their neighbourhood shows a clear deprivation gradient. In 2021, 56% of respondents in the most deprived SIMD quintile said that rubbish or litter lying around is very/fairly common in their neighbourhood, compared to 34% of respondents in the least deprived SIMD quintile (from Scottish Household Survey 2021 Results Neighbourhoods and Communities Tables, worksheet 2_20).
The ScotPHO profiles tool includes data by local authority for people living within 500 metres of a derelict site and adults rating their neighbourhood a very good place to live.
Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.
