Via Caroline Macafee on FB.
2021 Topic Consultation – 8 October 2015 – 15 January 2016. National Records Scotland is planning the 2021 Census in Scotland. As part of this, they are users for their views on the topics to be included on the 2021 Census questionnaire. Note especially.
The 2011 Census was the first to collect information on the Scots language. Consultation in 2006 and 2007 identified user need for data on Scots, mostly in relation to the spoken version of the language. Opinion was polarised however, primarily because of the difficulties involved in defining the term. Research carried out prior to the census suggested that people vary considerably in their interpretation of what is meant by “Scots” and that it was therefore likely that the census statistics would reflect a very broad definition of the language. These findings were reflected in the data that was collected. The CQS showed that the „Scots‟ part of the language matrix question (which asked about abilities in English, Gaelic and Scots) had one of the lowest agreement rates of all questions, at 88.5 per cent. Since 2011 was the first census to collect information on the Scots language and given the concerns which exist around data quality, NRS require further information to understand user need for 2021.