Table 2

Description of socioeconomic study covariates (n=2 810 414 observations, study period 2002–17)

	Census fixed socioeconomic covariates (n=202 237 individuals)
		2002–10		2011–17
		Frequency	%	Frequency	%
Sex	Men	94 859	46.9	80 282	46.9
	Women	107 314	53.1	90 753	53.1
Ethnicity	White	192 485	95.2	163 571	95.6
	Not white	9688	4.8	7464	4.4
Ethnicity: 3 categories	White	192 485	95.2	163 571	95.6
	Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Indian	1525	0.8	1323	0.8
	Other ethnicities	8163	4.0	6141	3.6
Country of birth	Born in Scotland	173 229	85.7	149 018	87.1
	Born in rest of UK	19 649	9.7	15 340	9.0
	Not born in UK	9295	4.6	6677	3.9
Marital status	Married	104 386	51.6	93 867	54.9
	Single, never married	58 396	28.9	38 979	22.8
	Divorced/separated/widowed	38 481	19.0	37 770	22.1
	No response	910	0.5	419	0.2
Education	No educational qualification	60 311	29.8	53 223	31.1
	Intermediate school	44 854	22.2	36 561	21.4
	High school	27 844	13.8	20 343	11.9
	Post-school/university	48 251	23.9	58 781	34.4
	Still a student	688	0.3	53	0.0
	No response/not recoded	20 225	10.0	2074	1.2
Occupation	White collar high skilled	54 299	26.9	55 595	32.5
	White collar low skilled	50 325	24.9	49 202	28.8
	Blue collar high skilled	20 530	10.2	20 500	12.0
	Blue collar low skilled	46 718	23.1	38 173	22.3
	Not applicable: students/never worked	25 535	12.6	5793	3.4
	No response	4766	2.4	1772	1.0
Total		202 173	100	171 035	100
	Yearly varying covariates (n=2 810 414 observations)
Age (years) (mean (SD))	52.53 (17.57)
Place of residence	Large urban areas	977 697	34.8
	Other urban areas	815 048	29.0
	Accessible small towns	207 083	7.4
	Remote small towns	67 776	2.4
	Accessible rural areas	528 929	18.8
	Remote rural areas	213 881	7.6

Data source is the authors' own calculations based on data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study.
Z test to compare the percentages between 2002–10 and 2011–17 was 0.0046, with a p value of 0.996, indicating that there was no significant difference in the percentages between the two study periods.