Scottish cities

Child poverty in Scottish cities

This chart compares child poverty rates, after accounting for the cost of housing, among the four largest cities in Scotland between the years 2014/2015 and 2022/2023. Over this period, Glasgow consistently recorded the highest child poverty rates in the four cities, increasing from 27.1% in 2014/15 to 32.9% in 2022/23. The only decrease occurred in 2020/21, when rates temporarily fell to 29.4%, before rising again in subsequent years. Rates were lower in Dundee and Aberdeen and lowest in Edinburgh, but followed a similar overall pattern. 

End Child Poverty discussed the reasons behind child poverty trends across the UK in their report and press releases. They noted that the figures did not yet cover the full roll-out of the Scottish Child Payment, but that modelling suggests that it has had a positive impact on families. They drew attention to the impacts of the two-child benefit cap, showing correlation between the number of children affected by this cap and levels of child poverty. Their press release for Scotland lists the parliamentary constituencies with the highest levels of child poverty in Scotland – the top six constiuencies are all in Glasgow. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, median household income decreased, and so did the overall proportion of people living in relative poverty. The amount paid to households receiving Universal Credit was also raised by £20 per week between April 2020 and October 2021, and figures for 2020/2021 cover the period of this temporary uplift. End Child Poverty noted that experts believe this may be part of the reason why some areas of the UK saw a fall in child poverty.

Notes

The Scottish Government has set targets for reducing child poverty in Scotland. These targets are to reduce child poverty to under 10% by 2030. The Scottish Government report each year on the progress made towards tackling child poverty. Best Start, Bright Futures, the latest plan for tackling child poverty between 2022 and 2026, was published in June 2024. Scottish Government modelling estimated that the Scottish Child Payment could reduce the relative child poverty rate by six percentage points in 2024-25 relative to if the policy was not in place. This would represent keeping around 60,000 children out of relative poverty.

A JRF report, published in October 2021, has more detail on the interim and overall targets and the work needed to meet them. 

The data for this graph come from End Child Poverty. 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 updated, further detail can be found on the website.

These figures refer to children aged 0-16 and to families living in poverty after housing costs are taken into account. 

This section was last updated in December 2024.