Scottish Social Attitudes Survey

Organisation Responsible: Scottish Centre for Social Research. Modules are funded by charitable foundations, research bodies and the Scottish Government.

Background and purpose: The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSA) is undertaken by ScotCen and began in 1999, when it also doubled as the Scottish Parliamentary Election Study. Its aim is to provide independent, authoritative, high quality data on social, moral and political attitudes in Scotland. These data help inform public policy and facilitate the academic study of public opinion, in much the same way that its sister survey, the British Social Attitudes Survey has done since 1983 across Britain as a whole. The surveys are similar in design and sometimes contain the same questions so that comparisons can be made between Scotland, England and Wales.

Survey years / frequency: The survey has been conducted annually from 1999 to 2017 except in 2008. 

Survey content: The SSA has a modular structure. In any one year it will typically contain four or five modules, each with 40 questions. Funding for its first two years came from the Economic and Social Research Council, while from 2001 onwards different bodies have funded each year's individual modules. These bodies have included the Economic and Social Research Council, the Scottish Government and various charitable and grant awarding bodies, such as the Nuffield Foundation and Leverhulme Trust. The survey focuses mainly on people's attitudes, but also collects a wide range of background details for use in analysis including political party affiliation, newspaper readership, household circumstances and work. To date, topics have included national identity, devolution and independence, discrimination, environmental issues, elections and politics, public spending and social welfare, alcohol, anti-social behaviour, drugs, families and health.

Target population: Adults (aged 18+) resident in Scotland from 1999 to 2015, extended to persons aged 16 and 17 from 2016 onwards to reflect the lowering of the age limit for voting in Scottish elections.

Sample size: Stratified, clustered, random sample of 1,200-1,700 adults living in private households in Scotland, including the Highlands and Islands. The sample is obtained from the Postal Address File. Only one person is interviewed in each household.

Response rate: In 2023, a minimum target of 1,000 productive interviews and a 15% response rate was set. These targets were met and SSAS 2023 achieved 1,574 fully productive interviews and a 15.1% household response rate.

Method of data collection: In 2023, SSAS was run as a push-to-web survey for the first time in its history. A detailed analysis describes of this change in methodology from face-to-face to push-to-web.

Geographical units reported: Scotland. Lower level breakdowns may be possible, contact the research team for information. From 2002, the survey has contained a boosted rural sample to allow greater analysis within rural areas.

Availability of results and further information: The survey is designed and developed from January each year, with fieldwork usually taking place in the summer and a data set available for analysis by the ScotCen team and collaborators around the end of the year. Data are archived with the UK Data Service around the end of the following year. Tailored dissemination strategies are developed for each module and might include special reports and presentations for funders, public seminars, conferences, books, journal articles and short research findings papers.

Further details on the survey including published reports and briefing papers are available on the What Scotland Thinks website.