Scottish cities

Child Poverty in Scottish Cities

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Around 37% of children in Glasgow were living in poverty in 2017/18. This is the highest rate among Scotland’s major cities; for example, twice the rate in Aberdeen and over one and a half times that of Edinburgh. Child poverty in Glasgow rose by almost 4% between 2016/17 to 2017/18. It also rose in Dundee and Edinburgh by around 2.5% over the same time period. In Aberdeen, it fell by almost 1%.  

Note

The data for this graph come from End Child Poverty’s Child Poverty map of the UK. Households are defined as living in poverty if their income is less than 60% of the UK median income. The methods of estimation have recently been improved, further detail can be found here. The 2016/17 data is taken from estimates of change in child poverty, using the new methods. 

Other measures of child poverty

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Poverty statistics often only include households with incomes below a poverty threshold (usually 60% of middle incomes). Recently the Scottish Government has published figures that consider other resources as well as income.

These measures are based on experimental statistics. These new experimental measures take into account resources as well as income. The measures report on children in families that cannot afford basic necessities (they live in material deprivation) as well as having a low income (70% of middle incomes).

This produces a slightly different picture of child poverty across the Scottish cities, though figures are still highest in Glasgow, at 43%. There may be some degree of measurement uncertainty, more information on this can be found on page 7 of the Scottish Government report.