Scotland's Census 2022 - Learning disability – additional analysis
We made changes to how long term health conditions were presented on the census form in 2022. These changes had an unintended impact on the learning disabilities, learning difficulties and developmental disorders categories.
As a result, the 2022 census data on learning disability does not provide a plausible estimate of the number of people with a learning disability in Scotland. Please see our quality report for more information.
In response, we have combined data from 2011 and 2022 and looked at people who reported a learning disability in both censuses. We can be confident that people in this group have a learning disability and have not misinterpreted the census question in 2022.
On this page you can access tables showing the number of people in this group and their characteristics. These tables only include people with a learning disability who responded to the 2011 and 2022 censuses. For example, people born after 2011 and people who moved to Scotland after 2011 are excluded. People who died, or left Scotland after 2011 are also excluded.
This means these tables are not representative of the total population of people with a learning disability. And they do not show how the size of this population has changed over time. But they do provide some insight into how the circumstances and characteristics of people with learning disabilities changed between censuses.
Analysis of combined 2011 and 2022 data on learning disability
We’ve published general guidance on how to work with census data. When analysing the combined 2011 and 2022 data in these tables we also need to give special consideration to the fact that this is a single cohort of people, surveyed at two different points in time. The 2011 and 2022 data are for the same people, 11 years apart.
This means the age distribution in 2011 is different from the distribution in 2022. Everyone in the cohort is 11 years older. So there are more people in older age groups, and there are no new people in the youngest age group.
There is a link between age and many other census variables. So the different age distributions in 2011 and 2022 may influence the patterns in the data for some variables. For example, in a population with more older people, you would expect people’s general health to be worse. We have included age breakdowns in several tables to help users take this into account.
An example - general health by age
Table 2 shows general health by age for people who reported a learning disability in both the 2011 and 2022 censuses.
When comparing a specific age cohort across censuses (e.g. 21-30 in 2011 vs 31-40 in 2022), we see that the general health of people with learning disabilities is worse when they are eleven years older. And this effect is more pronounced in older age groups.
When comparing people of the same age (e.g. 21-30 in 2011 vs 21-30 in 2022), the general health of people with a learning disability looks more similar across the two censuses. But there is evidence of some people with learning disabilities reporting worse health in 2022 than the equivalent age group did in 2011.