MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) researchers have published a report providing a contemporary overview of health inequalities in Scotland.

Map of Scotland with people represented as jigsaw pieces

SPHSU researchers have published a report, 'Trends in deaths, health and wellbeing, health behaviours, and health services since 2000'. The report was commissioned by the Health Foundation and provides a contemporary overview of health inequalities in Scotland.

Following a global pandemic and entering a cost-of-living crisis, concern around how health inequalities in Scotland have and will be impacted is considerable. This report synthesises a wide range of existing data and new analysis to establish the magnitude of the problem, where improvements or deterioration is evident and who is most affected. Over four detailed chapters, trends in social inequalities in health, health-related behaviours and, health and social care services in Scotland are presented.

In the first decade since 2000, we see a pattern of modest improvements in health and inequalities, particularly in mortality rates. However, many have stalled, and some have worsened in the decade since. Today, we see considerable inequalities in health and wellbeing, which are widest for the most severe outcomes, especially deaths that occur early in life and from causes linked to despair. The worsening picture over the past decade indicates the importance of action now.

Read the report 

First published: 1 November 2022

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