ONE-fifth of Scots say their daily activities are limited by a long-term health problem or disability, new census data has revealed.
And one in ten Scots say their activities are limited a lot by their health.
Almost a tenth (9 per cent) of people say they are providing unpaid care to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of their health.
The proportion of Scots with limiting health conditions increased with age, with 5% of under-25s having a limiting condition compared with 83% of over-85s.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, whose remit includes national records, says the census data "explodes some popular alarmist myths" about Scotland's demographic problems.
The UK Government says the challenge that most developed countries face supporting their ageing populations "will be more pronounced in Scotland, mostly because there are relatively fewer children in Scotland, meaning there may be fewer workers in the future to support those who cannot work".
But Ms Hyslop said the census actually shows that "the number of working-age people compared to the number of dependents is lower than for the rest of the UK".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article