Ask what you actually want to know

The official measure used here means a household has less than 60% of the usual UK income after rent or mortgage costs. In ordinary words: there is not enough money left for a normal, secure life.

Around 940,000 people — about 1 in every 6 people in Scotland. The exact official figure is 17% after housing costs, measured across 2022–25.

About 1 in every 5 children. The exact Scotland-wide figure is 21% after housing costs in 2022–25.

Yes. Three quarters of children in poverty in Scotland live in a household where at least one person works. A job can still mean low pay, too few hours or bills that take too much of the wage.

No. It also covers poverty among adults and pensioners, work, out-of-work benefits, minimum-wage reality, carefully labelled pay evidence, housing, neighbourhoods and health.

They describe the same figure. ‘1 in 6’ is easier to picture. The exact percentage and number of people stay beside it for anyone who wants to check or quote the evidence.

It means rent, mortgage interest, water charges and some related housing costs are taken off before the household income is compared. That matters because two families with the same income can have very different amounts left after housing.

No. That is closer to destitution. Poverty means the household income is so far below normal that ordinary needs, choices and unexpected bills become difficult or impossible to manage.

A rate moving from 20% to 25% has risen by 5 percentage points. It has not risen by 5%. Percentage points are the simple difference between two percentages.

Choose your council area, or enter your postcode and let the site find it automatically. Every one of Scotland’s 32 council areas has its own page.

The main poverty survey is reliable for Scotland as a whole but not for every council area. The child-poverty estimates use tax and benefit records, so every area can be compared in the same way.

A council area is used for local services. An MP area is the constituency represented by one MP at Westminster. Their boundaries are different, so the two pages can show different figures for what sounds like the same place.

The pages may cover different boundaries or different measures. A council page and an MP-area page do not always contain the same streets. Each page states the area and definition beside the figure.

Because Glasgow’s child-poverty figures are the worst in Scotland. In 2023/24, 36.1% of children — 39,319 children — were in relative poverty after housing costs. Glasgow also had the steepest ten-year rise of any Scottish council area.

No. Scotland-wide coverage makes comparison possible, while Glasgow keeps a separate record across poverty, work, benefits, pay, neighbourhoods and health. Its worst-in-Scotland figures stay clearly marked.

No. It describes the area as a whole. Some neighbourhoods and families will be doing much better and others much worse. It is evidence about the scale of the problem, not a label for every person who lives there.

No. It is a median for a restricted sample of full-time PAYE employee jobs. It leaves out every part-time job, self-employment, workers outside PAYE, junior rates and some people affected by absence. The site labels it clearly so it is not mistaken for everyone’s wage.

The national poverty survey does not have enough responses in each council area to produce a safe like-for-like rate. The local pages use the strongest comparable records available instead of inventing a number.

Your MP works in the UK Parliament at Westminster. Your MSP works in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. They make decisions about different things, and you have both.

Yes. Everyone in Scotland has one Westminster MP and one constituency MSP. You also have seven regional MSPs covering a wider region.

No. Enter your postcode and the site finds the right people automatically from official sources. You do not have to understand constituencies or political boundaries.

No. MPs and MSPs represent everyone who lives in their area: people who voted for them, voted against them or did not vote at all.

From April 2026, an MP’s basic salary is £98,599 a year and an MSP’s is £77,711, before expenses or extra pay for other roles. Dealing with people in their area is part of the job.

Your constituency MSP covers the closest matching local area. Regional MSPs cover a much wider region and can also be contacted, but showing all eight people at once would make the simple action harder to follow.

The UK Government and Westminster Parliament control Universal Credit, most working-age benefits, the State Pension and help with private rent through Local Housing Allowance.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament control the Scottish Child Payment, housing policy, childcare and the NHS in Scotland. Councils deliver important local services within those systems.

Councils deal with homelessness, council housing, schools, local crisis support and many services people rely on. They do not set Universal Credit or the legal minimum wage.

Enter your postcode. The site finds your area, MP and constituency MSP, adds the relevant local facts and prepares one email for each person. You read them before opening them in your own email app.

No. Nothing is sent through this site. Your own email app opens with the address, subject and message filled in. You decide whether to edit it and press send.

No. It is used to find your area and representatives, then it is discarded. The site does not keep a list of the postcodes people enter.

No. Anything you type stays in your browser and is placed into the draft opened by your email app. It is not sent to or stored by Scotland Counted.

No. The site writes one request for each person and only asks them about things they can influence. You do not have to understand which parliament controls which rule.

A reply cannot be guaranteed. Their office will normally log the message and many send a written response. That response creates a record you can keep, share and compare with what happens later.

They use the local evidence, ask what the representative will do and ask what they expect the figure to be in five years. That makes the answer specific enough to check later.

Yes. There is an optional box for one sentence about your work, family, street or bills. A short real example can make the official number harder to brush aside.

No. The tool, local pages, data and ready-written emails are free. There is no account, subscription or paywall.

From the original publishers: the Scottish Government, ONS, DWP, End Child Poverty, Loughborough University and named research organisations. Each figure links to its source.

Each page states the exact period beside the number. Different official datasets update at different times: some monthly and others once a year. The public update log records each refresh.

Yes. The cleaned files and original source files are available without a login. Charts also expose exact tables and source notes.

Report the page, figure and source if you have it. Confirmed mistakes are corrected and added to the public corrections log instead of being quietly changed.

Yes. The charts, words and cleaned files are free to reuse with credit to Scotland Counted. The original publishers’ licence terms still apply to their files.

No. It is a personal, independent public-interest project. It has no party affiliation, funder, sponsor, adverts or paywall.

Not for many ordinary households. Minimum Income Standard research found that in 2025 a single adult working full time at the legal minimum reached only 76% of the income needed for a basic, decent standard of living. Families can face an even larger gap.

Not on its own. Most children in poverty already live with someone who works. Employment matters, but pay, hours, benefits, housing and childcare decide how much a family has left.

No. Lower inflation means prices are rising more slowly; it does not return them to their old level. Food, energy, rent and tax can stay much higher even after the inflation rate falls.

The repeated answers are enough family income, affordable secure housing, childcare that fits real working hours, better take-up of support and work that pays enough. No single change fixes every part.