Wealth and Assets in Scotland, 2006–2014

Analysis of the ownership of wealth by private households in Scotland from the Wealth and Assets 2006–2014 survey.


Footnotes

1. As wealth is highly skewed, the median values are generally used to report central tendency, as this better reflects the experience of households.

2. Less than 1 per cent of households in Scotland had negative total wealth.

3. Estimates include negative wealth values - i.e. households whose liabilities are greater than the value of assets.

4. Estimates include negative wealth values.

5. Estimates include negative wealth values.

6. Estimates exclude negative values (where the value of financial liabilities, excluding mortgages, was greater than the value of financial assets owned). All negative values were set to zero prior to decile points being calculated.

7. Estimates exclude negative values.

8. Estimates include households with negative net financial wealth.

9. The median value is based on all households with financial wealth, including those with negative financial wealth.

10. Estimates include households with zero private pension wealth.

11. https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8735

12. https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8583

13. Either contributing to or retained rights

14. Estimates are as a proportion of all people aged 16 years and older, irrespective of employment status. This provides an indication of the proportion of the population who may have no income other than Basic State pension at retirement.

15. Between July 2010 and June 2014, the number of men employed in the public sector in Scotland fell by 7.7%, while the number of women employed in the public sector in Scotland fell by 2.8%. Data extracted from NOMIS, Annual Population Survey year ending June 2014.

16. Estimates are as a proportion of all people aged 16 years and older, irrespective of employment status.

17. Estimates are as a proportion of all people aged 16 years and older, irrespective of employment status.

18. Households with negative property wealth (where the value of the outstanding mortgage is greater than the value of the property) have been set to zero.

19. Median values are estimated including negative values.

20. The distribution of wealth and the distribution of income are based on different data sources, and are calculated separately. Therefore it may not be the same households in each grouping for each distribution.

21. Palma 2006, 2011 It is important to note the distribution of wealth does not necessarily follow the distribution of income (on which the Palma methodology is based).

22. The evidence base on the Palma ratio is based on the analysis of distribution of income. However the main assumption of relative stability in the middle of the distribution holds for total net wealth. It does not hold however for the individual wealth components, especially financial and private pension wealth which have very skewed distributions. Therefore the Palma ration was calculated for total net household wealth only.

23. Households were sorted into ascending order by total net household wealth from the least to most wealthy. The least wealthy are the 30% with the lowest total net household wealth.

24. Negative values have been set to zero.

25. Intergenerational Fairness Index 2016, The Intergeneration Foundation

26. http://www.gov.scot/publications/poverty-income-inequality-scotland-2014-15/

27. Census 2011: 69% of lone parent households were economically active, of which 60% were in part time employment. Family Resources survey 2014/15 shows 65% of lone parent households were economically active. Of those in employment, 62% were in part time employment.

28. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/569410/Social_Mobility_Commission_2016_REPORT_WEB__1__.pdf

29. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/569410/Social_Mobility_Commission_2016_REPORT_WEB__1__.pdf

30. Households were sorted into ascending order by total net household wealth from least to most wealthy. The wealthiest are the 10% (in decile 10) with the highest total net household wealth.

31. This refers to educational qualifications only. For older people, educational qualifications may not be as strong an indicator of earnings, as vocational qualifications gained during their working life are not measured here.

32. The value is the respondents reported value of the main residence, and is the net value - that is the value of the property less any outstanding debt and equity release.

33. Wealth bands are a set of boundaries that remain the same over time and show the absolute position of a household in a pre-defined distribution. Wealth bands are more appropriate for illustrating movement over time where there are a large number of households with the same value of wealth, or where households cannot be separated into higher or lower deciles, as is the case for financial, property and physical wealth.

34. The Intergenerational Index 2016

35. http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/escape-plan-understanding-who-progresses-from-low-pay-and-who-gets-stuck/

36. http://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016-IF-Index.pdf

Contact

Email: Andrew White

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