Life in the UK 2026 Scotland
Think tank: Carnegie UK
Author(s): Various authors
November 2, 2026
This report from UK think tank Carnegie UK measures collective wellbeing across Scotland in 2026.
This is the latest edition of our annual Life in the UK – Scotland index, now with four years’ worth of data trends, enabling us to take a slightly longer-term view of how people across Scotland are living. Encouragingly, Scotland’s overall collective wellbeing score has held steady at 63, sustaining the improvement recorded in 2025 and sitting above the 61 recorded in both England and Wales this year.
Environmental wellbeing has also improved compared to 2023, reaching 67. While there have been no changes in the other three domain scores this year, Scotland has avoided many of the losses that are seen in other parts of the UK.
Social wellbeing is at 74, in line with scores seen in previous years, and economic wellbeing is similar to previous years at 71. Beneath this headline economic wellbeing finding, there has been a welcome improvement since 2023 in the proportion of people in Scotland who are able to afford to keep their home adequately warm, or to afford an unexpected expense of £850.
Democratic wellbeing once again remains concerningly low at 40. More than half of people in Scotland have low trust in the UK Government – though this still represents an improvement since 2023 and 2024 – but trust in the Scottish Government, which was elected shortly before this Life in the UK survey was undertaken, has improved since last year.
For Scotland, this paints a mixed picture of how people are living today. While there have been some improvements, there have also been some losses, particularly in relation to how satisfied people are with the availability of local job opportunities.
Wellbeing is affected by factors like income, disability status, and where you live; improvements are not shared equally, and some people experience downturns more acutely, often for reasons entirely outside their control.
