UofG led survey shows that racial discrimination continues to rise in Scotland
Published: 10 March 2025
Around one-third (35%) of people in Scotland’s Black, Asian, and visible minority ethnic communities say they have faced discrimination within the past two years - and confidence in anti-discrimination efforts has continued to decline, finds a new survey led by the University of Glasgow.
Around one-third (35%) of people in Scotland’s Black, Asian, and visible minority ethnic communities say they have faced discrimination within the past two years, finds a new survey led by the University of Glasgow.
The survey, undertaken as part of the Health-Justice Nexus project with polling company Survation, shows that experiences of racial discrimination have not decreased over the last decade, when placed alongside earlier studies, and that confidence in anti-discrimination efforts has continued to decline.
Employment was the biggest concern, with 40% encountering discrimination when seeking jobs, and 38% when trying to advance in their careers.
This was followed by experiences of policing and criminal justice (34%); healthcare (30%); transport (27%); housing (25%) and education (25%).
More than four fifths (85%) of respondents cited race and ethnicity as the primary cause in reported discrimination. Just under 46% of respondents reported discrimination based on their religious identity.
The findings show an increase in perceptions of racial discrimination, with 2015’s survey reporting that 31% had experienced discrimination, followed by 32% in 2017 and 34% in 2019.
Co-Investigator Professor Nasar Meer said: “This survey builds on previous years’ findings and highlights, on the one hand, that Scotland’s Black, Asian, and visible minority ethnic communities have firmly established themselves in Scottish society and strongly identify with it. On the other hand, they continue to experience racism across all areas of life, from the street to the workplace, in ways that can be both overt and subtle. This pattern has remained largely unchanged in a decade. It is unsurprising therefore that trust and confidence has declined in the institutions and systems able to address this.”
Experiences vary among different groups. In the most recent survey, 44% of respondents with self-reported Black African Caribbean heritage agreed with the statement that they had ‘experienced discrimination in Scotland’. This pattern of variation has been evident in each survey.
Notably, perceptions of racial discrimination in Scotland as a broader problem remain high, with 40% of respondents viewing it as widespread, and a further 42% believing that the frequency of discriminatory incidents had remained unchanged over the past two years, while 29% felt that things had worsened.
Despite these experiences and perceptions, nearly half (48%) of those who said they had experienced discrimination opted not to pursue any course of action. However, this figure is much lower than in 2015 when 60% of respondents said they had not reported their experiences.
Just over half of the people surveyed (57%) expressed trust in the police, 53% in the country’s anti-discrimination laws, and 49% in the ability of authorities to address discrimination.
These findings continue the downward trend between 2015 and 2019, where majorities people in the samples ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ agreed with the statement ‘I have confidence in the laws against discrimination’ (66% in 2015, 65% in 2017 and 60% in 2019), and similar majorities agreed that they had confidence in the authorities and other organisations to pursue discrimination cases (64% in 2015, 62% in 2017 and 57% in 2019).
The survey continued to confirm a strong claim on national identities, with a significant portion (37%) identifying as more Scottish than British and quarter (24%) seeing themselves as equally Scottish and British, whilst 15% leaned more toward a British identity. Among those who felt more British than Scottish, a notable proportion (44%) self-reported as Asian or Asian British, while the majority of those who identified as primarily Scottish (67%) self-reported as Asian or Asian Scottish.
The latest round of this survey was funded as part of an Applied Health Research Programme grant from the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist’s Office, jointly held by the University of Strathclyde, Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Glasgow.
The Health-Justice Nexus five-year programme of research is aiming to improve the health of Scotland's most disadvantaged communities by examining how direct and indirect contact with the justice system variously impact on health outcomes, and identifying opportunities for improvement.
First published: 10 March 2025