This statistic shows the voting intention of Scottish people in the upcoming referendum on independence from the United Kingdom, by age group. The referendum will take place on September 18, 2014. If the majority of voters say "yes", Scotland will become an independent nation. The "no" camp had most support among the over 65 year olds whilst those between the ages of 35 and 44 made up the largest contingent of "yes" supporters.

Further information may be found on the UKRI Scottish Referendum Study 2014 webpage.

As of March 2025, 54 percent of adults in Scotland said they would not support Scotland being independent from the United Kingdom, compared with 46 percent who would support it. Support for Scottish independence reached 53 percent in August 2020, the highest level of support for independence in the provided time period. The highest opposition to independence was in January 2018, when 57 percent of people in Scotland advised they would vote no in a hypothetical referendum. Independence rejected in the 2014 referendum The last referendum on Scottish independence took place in September 2014, with 55 percent of Scotland voting 'No' to independence, compared to 45.5 percent who voted 'Yes'. An optimistic 'Yes' campaign was led by Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) at the time; who had overseen his party increase their vote share in Westminster and achieve an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament in 2011. The following year, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, granted the Scottish Parliament the authority to hold the independence referendum, which would be held in 2014. Cameron, and various other UK politicians such as Gordon Brown, led the ultimately successful 'No' campaign, painting independence as too much of an economic risk for Scotland. Scotland and Brexit In the aftermath of the referendum, Alex Salmond resigned as First Minister of Scotland. Although he was on the winning side of the Scottish independence referendum, David Cameron’s would share Salmond’s fate less than two years later when he campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU and end up on the losing side of the Brexit referendum. For Scotland, Brexit gave renewed impetus to the question of Scottish independence. Except for London, all regions of England, along with Wales had voted to take the UK out of Europe, while Scotland, along with Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU. While this represented a significant change in Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK, advocates for Scottish independence have been unable to obtain consent from Westminster to hold a second referendum.

The Survey of young Scots was designed to investigate the attitudes of young Scots who would be eligible to vote for the first time in their life in 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Two representative samples of young people aged 14-17 years old living in Scotland are collected respectively in 2013 and 2014. Their views on Scottish independence and devolution, feelings of Scottish, British and European identities, and political interest are asked.The Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) Phase II represents an ambitious and wide-ranging set of activities that will: exploit the UK's social science data infrastructure through a programme of research, expand the boundaries of academic knowledge, contribute to the evidence base supporting public policy decision making, build capacity amongst social scientists in quantitative methods, create new toolkits and resources for data users, and improve public understanding about complex social issues affecting the UK. Phase I of AQMeN, which began in 2009, focused on addressing a major gap in quantitative skills amongst Scottish social scientists. However, engagement with policy makers during Phase I highlighted gaps between academic research and policy-based evidence in key areas of government importance which they were not able to address because of limited capacity to conduct advanced statistical research. This proposal attempts to address some of these gaps. Our main goal is to develop a dynamic and pioneering set of projects that will improve our understanding of current social issues in the UK and provide policy makers and practitioners with the evidence to build a better future. We focus on three key strands of research: * Education and Social Stratification - This strand aims to better understand the ways in which social class differences in entry to, progression in and attainment at tertiary education affect individuals' labour market outcomes and their civic participation. The proposed research will provide an in-depth analysis of individuals' educational and labour market trajectories and will try to explain how educational differentiation of curriculum and status shapes individuals' life chances. * Crime and Victimisation - This strand will seek to explain the dramatic change in crime rates in Scotland and many other jurisdictions. It will also draw on international data to understand and compare the determinants and impact of criminal careers amongst populations of offenders. This analysis can be used to identify the potential impact of interventions and national crime reduction policies. * Urban Segmentation and Inequality - This strand will create innovative new measures of social segmentation and combine these with cutting-edge longitudinal and sorting-model techniques to explore the causes of neighbourhood segmentation, household location choice and neighbourhood inequalities. It will also explore the effect of such inequalities on life chances and wellbeing for individuals and communities and the implications for how we design interventions through the development of policy simulation toolkits. Bringing the research strands together represents an innovative approach to social science research. For example, we will attempt to understand the various roles that education, crime and urban segmentation play in determining life chances and outcomes. We can also derive robust models of the economic costs and the benefits of policy interventions by taking account of the links between education, crime and urban segmentation. Our programme of research will feed into a broader set of training activities and knowledge exchange events that will benefit the wider social science community. Doctoral students will be the primary beneficiaries of our training activities, thus boosting capacity in quantitative methods skills amongst the emerging members of the academy, and the training manuals, dissemination materials and policy toolkits that we develop will leave a longstanding legacy for future researchers. Our programme will place UK social science on the international map as exemplars of how to do statistically well-informed policy research, how to exploit existing high-quality data resources, and how to embed a programme of training in these activities so that the next generation of researchers emerges with a deep understanding of advanced research techniques applied to society's needs. Surveys were conducted in the year of 2013 and 2014. These datasets are representative of a population of young people (age 16-17) living in Scotland. In April and May 2013, the interviews were carried out by telephone. The equal number of interviews in the eight Scottish parliament election regions were performed with a random digit dialing procedure. 1018 interviews were performed in total. Parents were asked for permission to interview their children and also asked a few questions themselves (5 in total). The children were asked 21 questions each. With the same sampling procedure, interviews were conducted again in April and May 2014. 1006 interviews were carried out in total.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how likely those residing in Scotland are to vote in September 2014 in the independence referendum. People can vote 'yes' or 'no' for independence from the United Kingdom. In August 2014, the vast majority of respondents (83 percent) said they were certain to vote.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland think standard of living would be effected if, in September 2014, Scotland voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. With a great deal of campaigning taking place on both sides of the debate, the 'no' vote usually has the most supporters in the polls. In January 2013, it was most commonly anticipated that there'd be no difference to the standard of living if Scotland left the United Kingdom.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how much those residing in Scotland feel they know about Scottish independence. The referendum will take place in September 2014. In January 2014, the largest group of respondents (39 percent) said they had some knowledge of the issue.

The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) Party Leader Evaluation Database 2010 – 2019 contains 4,119 words and phrases that evaluate British political party leaders. The data were collected during pre-election focus groups and interviews conducted with participants from England, Scotland and Wales, during the General Election campaigns of 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. For the party leader evaluation pre-election component, participants were provided with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived) taken from the party’s own website. They were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. The data structure mirrors data structures used in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable; the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it. In addition, a supplementary dataset is provided of leaders’ evaluation data from a study with residents of Dundee after the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 (N = 287).The Qualitative Election Study of Britain (QESB) Party Leader Evaluation Database 2010 – 2019 contains 4,119 words and phrases that evaluate British political party leaders. The data were collected during pre-election focus groups and interviews conducted with participants from England, Scotland and Wales, during the General Election campaigns of 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. For the party leader evaluation pre-election component, participants were provided with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived) taken from the party’s own website. They were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. The data structure mirrors data structures used in sentiment analysis. Each tab contains a column listing participant’s’ words and phrases as a string variable; the next two columns list the election year and leader, affective evaluations (relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings or emotions) as a string variable, and the affective evaluation as a numeric scale from negative –1 to positive +1. These data are suitable for sentiment and discourse analysis, or analytic generalization – establishing that a concept exists within a population regardless of the number of people who hold it. In addition, a supplementary dataset is provided of leaders’ evaluation data from a study with residents of Dundee after the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 (N = 287). The data in this dataset were sourced from the Qualitative Election Study of Britain. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in England, Scotland and Wales pre- and post-election. The 2010 –2015 participants were recruited into the QESB panel using a convenience sample from e-mail solicitation plus referrals, and from 2017, Facebook ads were used for recruitment. The PIs over-recruited in each wave and invited participants according to a quota to achieve diversity in partisan affiliation, age, geographic location and employment. To diversify the participant pool, top-up interviews were used to collect data from voters who could not attend an in-person focus groups. Further, online focus groups were used for the same reason. Online participants completed the evaluation exercise before their focus group or interview using a Word or Google document. The leaders evaluation pre-election exercise was conducted in the same way in each wave. Participants were provided a sheet with head shot pictures of the party leaders (depending on where in Britain they lived). Party leader pictures were taken from the party’s own website. Participants were instructed to write down words or phrases they associate with each person, and indicate if that association was positive, negative or neutral. Following the silent brainstorming exercise, the focus group moderator would lead the group in a discussion of the positives, negatives and neutral qualities of each leader. The data included in this dataset only includes the words and phrases written down by the participants, and not the subsequent discussion. For completeness, we include 2014 data, which were collected in the aftermath of the Scottish Independence Referendum and only took place in Dundee. In all other respects, the data collection method was the same as in the main QESB waves.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland would like the country to be governed, their constitutional preference, with the referendum on Scottish independence looming, when Scotland will vote 'yes' or 'no' for independence from the United Kingdom, there is naturally a great deal of campaigning taking place from both sides of the issue. The Scottish National Party want a completely autonomous Scotland whilst the Conservative led United Kingdom government is fighting for the centuries old union to continue. In January 2014, 43 percent were happy with the status quo.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland think their personal finances would be effected if, in September 2014, Scotland voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. With a great deal of campaigning taking place on both sides of the debate, the 'no' vote usually has the most supporters in the polls. In January 2014, it was most commonly anticipated that there would be no difference to personal finances if Scotland left the United Kingdom.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out if those residing in Scotland think the country should be a member of the European Union if, in September 2014, the country votes 'Yes' to become an independent nation. In January 2014, the majority of respondents (71 percent) said that they thought Scotland should indeed be a member of the EU.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how confident those residing in Scotland are about how the country would be effected if, in September 2014, people voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. In January 2014 the majority of respondents (60 percent) said they were, to some degree, unsure about what would happen.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland think the economy would be effected if, in September 2014, Scotland voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. With a great deal of campaigning taking place on both sides of the debate, the 'no' vote usually has the most supporters in the polls. In January 2014, the most commonly anticipated result was that independence would worsen the economy.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland think the gap between rich and poor would be effected if, in September 2014, Scotland voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. In January 2014, 37 percent of respondents thought there would be no such difference.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland think their county's influence in and voice in the world would be effected if, in September 2014, Scotland voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. In January 2014, the most commonly anticipated result was a weaker voice in the world with 38 percent saying they thought it would be a little or a lot weaker.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out what those residing in Scotland think about the share of government spending their country receives from being a part of the union of the United Kingdom. In January 2014, 43 percent of respondents felt that Westminster did not give Scotland its fair share of the budget.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how those residing in Scotland would feel if, in September 2014, Scotland voted 'yes' for independence from the United Kingdom. With a great deal of campaigning taking place on both sides of the debate, the 'no' vote usually has the most supporters in the polls. In January 2014, the most commonly anticipated feeling was one of worry, with the majority (58 percent) saying they'd be quite or very worried if it were to happen.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how confident those residing in Scotland are that there are enough people with the right expertise to run the country well if, in September 2014, the country votes 'Yes' to become an independent nation. In January 2014, 49 percent of the respondents said that they weren't confident in the potential leaders of a Scotland independent from the United Kingdom.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out how fair those residing in Scotland think the debate around the September 2014 independence referendum is. People were asked how confident they were that both sides were getting a fair chance to present their side. There has been fervid debate around this topic, with most polls showing a lead for the 'No' camp. In January 2013, the majority of respondents (57 percent) were confident it was fair.

This statistic shows a distribution of respondents to a survey question designed to find out what those residing in Scotland think should happen to the British nuclear submarines currently based in Scotland if, in September 2014, Scotland votes 'Yes' to become an independent nation. In January 2014, the largest group of respondents (42 percent) said that the submarines should not continue to be based in Scottish waters.