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Briefing
Care
Cost of living

Poverty in Scotland 2017

This briefing summarises how poverty rates in Scotland are changing, and is part of JRF’s monitoring across the UK of changes to poverty rates and the underlying drivers of poverty.

Written by:
Helen Barnard
Date published:

This briefing accompanies UK Poverty 2017, which looks at trends in poverty in the UK as a whole. It finds that:

  • Poverty is lower in Scotland than in the rest of the UK and falls in poverty among pensioners and families with children have been greater and more sustained than elsewhere
  • More than a third of people in the poorest fifth of the population now spend more than a third of their income on housing
  • The gap in attainment among children from the most and least deprived areas is very large and increases as children get older
  • Nearly one in five adults in the poorest fifth of the population experience anxiety or depression, far higher than in those who are better off
  • The majority of people in the poorest fifth of the population in Scotland do not have any savings or investments, and are not building up a pension