Who lives in poverty?

Children are at significantly greater risk of poverty than either working age adults or pensioners, with more than one in four of Scotland’s children growing up in poverty in 2008/09 (26 per cent), compared with 19 per cent of working-age adults and 11 per cent of pensioners. Since 1994/95, Scotland has experienced little change in the overall number of adults of working age who are living in poverty. After housing costs, the number has actually risen by 40,000 (7 per cent), although the risk of poverty is only 1 per cent higher than in 1994/95 due to population increase. Lone parents are more than twice as likely to be living in poverty compared with couples with children. Gender-based poverty is most marked among people of pensionable age – 17 per cent of Scotland’s female pensioners are living in poverty. Poverty is unevenly distributed across Scotland. The highest numbers of people living in poverty are found in Scotland’s largest cities,
although poverty and household income deprivation are also prevalent
in rural Scotland