Education, economy and work - easy read version
Education
Highest qualifications in Edinburgh
- Highest qualification in Edinburgh by year:
- In 2022, 220,000 people had a degree or above, 168,000 in 2011.
- In 2022, 41,000 people had further education qualifications, 31,000 in 2011.
- In 2022, 19,000 people had apprenticeship qualifications.
- In 2022, 54,000 people had upper school qualifications, 62,000 in 2011.
- In 2022, 63,000 people had lower school qualifications, 75,000 in 2011.
- In 2022, 43,000 people had no qualifications, 69,000 in 2011.
- The number of people over 16 who do not have any qualifications has decreased by 7.5% (23,733 people) from 2011 in Edinburgh and is now fewer than 43k people
- 59% of people over 16 in Edinburgh have further education, degree or above
- 46% of people over 16 in Scotland have further education, degree or above
- Highest qualification by age in Edinburgh:
- Ages 16 to 24: 41% have further education or above, 53% have school qualifications, 6% have no qualifications
- Ages 25 to 34: 77% have further education or above, 17% have school qualifications, 6% have no qualifications
- Ages 35 to 49: 73% have further education or above, 19% have school qualifications, 5% have no qualifications, 3% have apprenticeship qualifications
- Ages 65 and over: 43% have further education or above, 23% have school qualifications, 25% have no qualifications, 9% have apprenticeship qualifications
- Ages 50 to 64: 56% have further education or above, 26% have school qualifications, 12% have no qualifications, 6% have apprenticeship qualifications
- People whose highest level of qualification is apprenticeship are becoming less common while more than three quarters of people aged 25-34 have reached a level higher than further education.
Highest qualification by ward
- The highest qualification reached by over 60% of the population in both Morningside and Inverleith is degree or above
- Less than 40% of the population in Liberton/Gilmerton have completed a qualification of degree or above
Economic activity
Distribution of economic activity in Edinburgh
- Active (281,000 people): 233,000 employees, 36,000 self-employed and 12,000 unemployed.
- Inactive (159,000 people): 81,000 retired, 40,000 students, 16,000 long-term sick or disabled, 12,000 looking after someone and 9,000 for other reason.
- 64% of the population over 16 years old in Edinburgh are economically active. 83% of them are employees. Over half of the inactive population are retired. The 64 percentage uses as base all population over 16, not only the working age population.
Economic activity in Edinburgh and Scotland in 2011 and 2022
- Active
- 69% in Edinburgh in 2011, 64% in 2022
- 69% in Scotland in 2011, 61% in 2022
- Inactive
- 31% in Edinburgh in 2011, 36% in 2022
- 31% in Scotland in 2011, 39% in 2022
Full time and part time employees
Almost 10% of the active population in Edinburgh in 2022 were full time students. In 2011 the percentage was under 8%.
- 73% of employees and 62% of self-employed people work full time (71% of total)
- 27% of employees and 39% of self-employed people work part time (29% of total)
Economic activity by ward
- Southside/Newington (15.3k) and City Centre (14.7k) are the wards with the highest number of inactive population
- The wards with the highest number of retired people are Almond and Liberton/Gilmerton, both with over 6,500 people in retirement
Industry share and occupation
Industry share
- The sector with the highest number of employees in Edinburgh in 2022 is the Human Health and Social Work sector (13%). The percentage uses as base all population over 16, not only the working age population, and the industry is self-determined by the individuals filling the census.
- Distribution by sector (over 20,000 employees)
- Human Health and Social Work: 36,000
- Education: 27,000
- Accommodation and Food Service: 25,000
- Professional, scientific and technical: 24,000
- Wholesale and Retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: 24,000
- Public administration and defence; compulsory social security: 23,000
- Financial and insurance: 23,000
Occupations
- Around 30% of the population of Edinburgh work in professional occupations, almost 10% more than the Scottish percentage. These are jobs that require a degree or equivalent qualification, sometimes further training or experience.
Hours worked
- Just over 9% of the population over 16 work less than 15 hours (8% in Scotland)
- Nearly 20% work between 16 and 30 hours (20% in Scotland)
- 63% work between 31 and 48 hours (62% in Scotland)
- Just over 8% work 49 hours or more (10% in Scotland)
- 2% fewer people than in 2011 work over 49 hours
- 2011: 11.1%
- 2022: 8.3%
- There are almost 4,000 people over 65 that are still working over 30 hours in Edinburgh.
- Number of people working more than 30 hours:
- Aged 16 to 24: 16,000
- Aged 25 to 34: 59,000
- Aged 35 to 49: 67,000
- Aged 50 to 64: 45,000
- Aged 65 or over: 4,000
Distance to work and method of travel
Distance to work
- The number of people working mainly from home, working abroad or who do not have a fixed location are the groups that have increased the most from 2011 in Edinburgh
- Active population by their distance to work:
- Distance to work 2km or less: 8% in Edinburgh, 9% in Scotland
- Distance to work between 2km and 10km: 33% in Edinburgh, 25% in Scotland
- Distance to work over 10km: 20% in Edinburgh, 15% in Scotland
- Other (work abroad or do not have a fixed location): 12% in Edinburgh, 9% in Scotland
- Works mainly from home: 32% in Edinburgh, 39% in Scotland
Distance to work by ward
- Over 97k people said in the census survey that they work mainly from home. Of those, 8.5k live in Leith Walk ward (8.6%)
- Just over 9.4k people answered that they work more than 20km away from home. Of those, 872 live in Almond ward (9.3%)
Methods of travel to work
- 39% work mainly from home (almost 44% of 65+)
- 28% travel by car or van (33% of people aged 50 to 64)
- 17% walk or cycle to work (over 26% of people 16 to 24)
- 16% use other method of travel (over 20% of people 16 to 24)