Supporting Information

Scottish Household Survey, years used and comparisons over time

In order to enable more robust analysis by different types of disability, this publication combines data from a number of years to provide a larger sample.

In the 2021 edition of the report, figures were averaged over five years. However, from 2022 there was a change in approach to identifying areas affected by health conditions (as described in the section on the definition of disability). This information is used to identify the ‘type’ of disability the respondent has. The change meant that it is not possible to combine or directly compare data from years prior to 2022, with that from 2022 onwards.

In this edition, data for the three years 2022, 2023 and 2024 have been combined in the main tables, where possible. This has been done to give a larger sample size for areas affected than for one year. A set of time series tables has been provided for a selection of statistics.

If comparing with the results in the 2021 report, which were averaged over the years 2017 to 2021, it’s important to bear in mind that the survey methodology was changed in the years 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. Most notably, the survey was moved to telephone interviewing rather than face to face.

The full Scottish Household Survey questionnaire can be found on the Scottish Government website.

Figures for individual years are available by disability (but not any further sub-divisions) in Transport and Travel in Scotland.

Your Bus Journey, Rail User Survey and Rail Customer Experience Survey

Other than the Scottish Household Survey, the two main sources for the Accessible Travel framework outcome indicators are the Your Bus Journey survey and the Rail User Survey, both carried out by Transport Focus. When the Rail User Survey replaced the National Rail Passenger Survey in 2021, some of the indicators for the Accessible Travel framework were dropped from the survey. The Rail User Survey has been replaced by the Rail Customer Experience Survey in July 2025, carried out by National Rail. This new survey includes data on all of the rail-related Accessible Travel Framework indicators, so we should be able to report on them again in future.

The analysis used in this publication is taken from the Transport Focus Data Hub.