Census 2022

Health

General health in Edinburgh in 2011 and 2022

83.7% of the population in Edinburgh have good or very good health. This is a decrease of 2.4% from 2011.

In 2022:

• 53% of people considered themselves to be in very good health (58% in 2011)
• 31% of people considered themselves to be in good health (29% in 2011)
• 11% of people considered themselves to be in fair health (10% in 2011)
• 4% of people considered themselves to be in poor health (3% in 2011)
• 1% of people considered themselves to be in very poor health (1% in 2011).

General health in Edinburgh – highlights by age

• 84% of people aged 0 to 15 are in very good health
• nearly 88% of people aged 65 or over are in fair, good or very good health
• less than 2% of people under 65 have very bad health.

Bad health in Edinburgh and Scotland

• 5.3% of people in Scotland have bad or very bad health in 2022
• 3.8% of people in Edinburgh have bad or very bad health in 2022.

Long-term health conditions in Edinburgh in 2022

• 93,000 people have a long-term illness, disease or condition (18.1%)
• 61,000 people have a mental health condition (11.9%)
• 35,000 people have a physical condition (6.7%)
• 29,000 people are deaf or have a partial hearing impairment (5.6%)
• 11,000 people are blind or have a partial sight impairment (2.2%)
• 1,000 people have difficulty speaking (0.2%).

These figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. We can’t add the figures to calculate the percentage of population living with long-term health conditions because people could appear in multiple categories.

Disability

Day-to-day limitations in Scotland and Edinburgh and for people over 65

• 19.5% of people in Edinburgh have their day-to-day activities limited due to disability (100,529 people)
• 75.9% of the population in Scotland and 80.5% of the population in Edinburgh do not have their activities limited due to disability
• 13.3% of the population in Scotland and 11.9% of the population in Edinburgh have their activities limited a little
• 10.8% of the population in Scotland and 7.6% of the population in Edinburgh have their activities limited a lot
• More than 50% of people aged 65 or over in Edinburgh have some limitation when carrying day-to-day activities: 25.3% limited a little and 24.9% limited a lot.

Change in day-to-day limitations from 2011

• The population in Edinburgh who have their day-to-day activities limited has increased by 3% for small limitations and 0.4% for big limitations from 2011
• 43,000 people had their activities limited a little in 2011, and 61,000 people in 2022
• 34,000 people had their activities limited a lot in 2011, and 39,000 people in 2022.

Carers

Percentage of population providing unpaid care in Edinburgh by age

• 9.6% of people in Edinburgh provides unpaid care (48,175)
• percentage of people who provide unpaid care by age group:
  • 1.5% of people aged 3 to 15
  • 3.9% of people aged 16 to 24
  • 8.9% of people aged 24 to 49
  • 20.4% of the population aged 50 to 64
  • 10.9% of the population aged 65 and over.

Unpaid care – hours and change from 2011

• 4% of Edinburgh residents who provide unpaid care do it for less than 20 hours
• 19% of them provide more than 50 hours
• 2% more of the population provided unpaid care in 2022 compared to 2011.