Experience of Ulster-Scots culture and heritage by adults in Northern Ireland
AD
31/10/2024
Experience of Ulster-Scots culture and heritage by adults in Northern Ireland
Findings from the Continuous Household Survey 2023/24
An Official
Statistics publication
Published by:
Analytics Division
Coverage: Northern Ireland
Frequency: Biennial
Publication Date: 28 November 2024
Frequency: Biennial
Publication Date: 28 November 2024
Introduction
The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement committed the Government to ‘recognise the importance of respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity, including in Northern Ireland, the Irish language, Ulster-Scots and the languages of the various ethnic minorities, all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland.’ In addition, the NI Executive has a statutory duty to adopt strategies setting out how it proposes to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language, and to enhance and develop the Ulster-Scots language, heritage and culture. DfC leads in the development of these strategies and, through sponsorship of the North-South Language Body, in promoting the use of Irish and Ulster-Scots across all NI Government Departments and agencies.
This bulletin follows a headline bulletin released in July 2024 and provides findings from the 2023/24 Continuous Household Survey on the experience of Ulster-Scots culture and heritage by adults in Northern Ireland. These findings are used to inform the development, monitoring and evaluation of policy. More information relating to the CHS, methodology, definitions and the interpretation of the figures can be found in the Definitions & technical notes section. Data tables are available in Excel and ODS format. The questions that were asked in the CHS 2023/24 are available here.
Note: Data collection for the 2023/24 CHS was carried out using a mix of telephone and face-to-face interviewing modes, a similar approach to that used in 2022/23. For 2020/21 and 2021/22 data collection was by telephone interviewing due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There was also a reduction in the number of questions between 2020/21-2022/23. As a result, the figures from 2020/21 onwards are not directly comparable to previous years due to the significant changes to the survey in terms of methodology and content. More information is available on the NISRA website.
Lead statistician: Amy Lewis
Engagement with Ulster-Scots culture and heritage
Engagement with Ulster-Scots culture and heritage is defined as either participating in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity or attending an Ulster-Scots cultural event. In 2023/24, just under one in every seven adults (14%) had engaged with Ulster-Scots culture and heritage within the previous year, with men being more likely to have engaged than women (16% and 12% respectively).
Adults from a Protestant background were more likely to have engaged with Ulster-Scots culture (25%) than both adults from a Catholic background (4%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (9%).
Analysis by age shows that adults aged 45 and over were more likely to have engaged with Ulster-Scots culture and heritage in the previous year than those aged 44 and under (15% and 12% respectively).
There were differences in the proportions of adults who had engaged in Ulster-Scots culture and heritage when analysed by disability and deprivation. Adults who have a disability (12%) were less likely to have engaged with Ulster-Scots culture and heritage than adults who do not have a disability (15%). In contrast, adults living in the least deprived areas were more likely to have engaged with Ulster-Scots culture and heritage compared to those living in the most deprived areas (18% and 10% respectively).
Similar proportions of adults living in urban areas and those living in rural areas had engaged in Ulster-Scots culture and heritage within the last year (15% and 13% respectively). Furthermore, there was no difference in the proportions of adults who have dependants and those who do not have dependants (both 14%).
Local Government District
In 2023/24, just under a quarter of adults (23%) living in these areas had engaged with Ulster-Scots culture in the previous year; Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, and Lisburn and Castlereagh City. Whilst around one in twenty adults (6%) living in Derry City and Strabane had engaged with Ulster-Scots culture.
Note: Figures should be used with caution due to a small sample size which may result in less precise estimates.
Participation in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity
In 2023/24, just under one in every ten adults (8%) had participated in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity within the previous year. Men were more likely to have participated in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity than women in the previous year (10% and 6% respectively).
Around one in seven adults from a Protestant background (14%) participated in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity within the last year which was greater than the proportion of Catholic adults (2%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (7%).
Analysis by age group showed similar proportions of adults aged under 44 and those aged 45 and over had participated in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity in the previous year (7% and 8% respectively).
There was no difference in the proportions of adults participating in Ulster-Scots cultural activities when analysed by deprivation, dependants and those living in either urban or rural areas, however there was a difference when looking at disability. Adults who have a disability were less likely to have participated in an Ulster-Scots cultural activity within the previous year than adults who do not have a disability (5% and 9% respectively).
Types of Ulster-Scots cultural activity
The most frequently cited Ulster-Scots cultural activities which adults participated in within the previous year was ‘Burns night concert/Burns celebrations’, an ‘Ulster-Scots parade’, ‘Hogmanay’, ‘A festival celebrating Ulster-Scots’ and ‘Playing Ulster-Scots music’ (all 2%). Other Ulster-Scots activities that adults said that they had participated in were ‘Siege of Derry Commemorations’, ‘Ulster-Scots dancing’, an ‘Ulster-Scots band competition’, ‘Ulster-Scots drama activity’ and an ‘Ulster-Scots history class’ (all 1%).
Attendance at Ulster-Scots cultural events
In 2023/24, over one in every ten adults (13%) attended an Ulster-Scots cultural event within the previous year. Men were more likely than women to have attended an Ulster-Scots cultural event within the last year (14% and 11% respectively).
Adults from a Protestant background were more likely to have attended an Ulster-Scots cultural event (23%) than both adults from a Catholic background (3%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (7%).
Similar proportions of adults aged 44 and under and those aged 45 and over had attended Ulster-Scots cultural events in the previous year (11% and 13% respectively).
Analysis by deprivation showed that adults living in the most deprived areas were less likely to have attended an Ulster-Scots cultural event (9%) than adults living in the least deprived areas (17%). Further analysis by dependants, disability and whether they lived in an urban or rural area showed that there was no difference in the proportions of adults who had attended an Ulster-Scots cultural event in the previous year.
Types of Ulster-Scots cultural events
The most frequently cited Ulster-Scots cultural events that adults attended in the previous year were an ‘Hogmanay’ and ‘Ulster-Scots parade’ (both 4%) and ‘Burns Night Concert/Burns celebrations’ (3%). Other Ulster-Scots events attended by adults in the previous year were ‘Siege of Derry Commemorations’, ‘Ulster-Scots band competition’, ‘A festival celebrating Ulster-Scots’ and ‘Ulster-Scots dancing’ (all 2%).
Barriers to attending more Ulster-Scots cultural events
When asked for reasons that prevented them from attending more Ulster-Scots cultural events, a third of adults (33%) cited ‘I’m not really interested’. Other reasons included ‘It’s difficult to find the time’ (8%), ‘My health isn’t good enough’ (6%) and ‘Events are not publicised enough’ (6%). Just under half of adults (47%) stated that ‘Nothing prevents them’ from attending more Ulster-Scots events.
Understanding of Ulster-Scots culture and traditions
Just under half of all adults (47%) had at least a little understanding of Ulster-Scots culture and traditions, with 12% of adults stating that they understood Ulster-Scots culture and traditions a lot. Just over a quarter of adults had hardly any understanding (27%) or understood nothing at all (26%) of Ulster-Scots culture and traditions.
Men were more likely than women to have had at least a little understanding of Ulster-Scots culture and traditions (51% and 43% respectively). A higher proportion of adults from a Protestant background (63%) than both adults from a Catholic background (31%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (49%) understood at least a little about Ulster-Scots culture and traditions.
In addition, adults who have a disability (51%), those without dependants (50%) and those living in the least deprived areas (63%) were more likely to have understood at least a little about Ulster-Scots culture and traditions than their respective counterparts, those without a disability (46%), those with dependants (44%) and those living in the most deprived areas (38%).
Respect for Ulster-Scots culture and traditions
In 2023/24, three-quarters of adults (75%) had at least a little respect for Ulster-Scots culture and traditions, with just under two-fifths of adults (39%) having a lot of respect. Just over one in every ten adults said they either had hardly any respect (13%) or no respect at all (12%) for Ulster-Scots culture and traditions.
When analysed by religion, a higher proportion of adults from the Protestant community (86%) than those from both the Catholic community (63%) and adults who described their religious background as ‘Other/None’ (73%) had at least a little respect for Ulster-Scots culture and traditions.
In addition, adults living in the least deprived areas (84%) were more likely to have at least a little respect for Ulster-Scots culture and traditions compared to those living in the most deprived areas (69%).
Definitions & technical notes
Continuous Household Survey
The Continuous Household Survey is a Northern Ireland wide household survey administered by Central Survey Unit, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The sample for this survey consists of a systematic random sample of 8,940 addresses selected from the Land and Property Service’s list of private addresses. The findings reported for 2023/24 are based on 4,927 respondents, aged 16 and over.
Note: Data collection for the 2023/24 CHS was carried out using a mix of telephone and face-to-face interviewing modes, a similar approach to that used in 2022/23. For 2020/21 and 2021/22 data collection was by telephone interviewing due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There was also a reduction in the number of questions between 2020/21-2022/23. As a result, the figures from 2020/21 onwards are not directly comparable to previous years due to the significant changes to the survey in terms of methodology and content. More information is available on the NISRA website.
Weighting the Continuous Household Survey
Analysis of the Irish/Ulster-Scots module of the CHS has been weighted for non-response. A chi square goodness-of-fit test showed that the CHS sample (4,927) was not representative of the population by age and sex when compared with the 2022 Mid Year Estimates for Northern Ireland (NISRA 31 August 2023). As a result, separate weights were produced for age, sex and age and sex combined.
Non-response weighting sometimes increases standard errors, although the impact tends to be fairly small, i.e. the adjustment may be less or greater than 1, but will generally be reasonably close to 1. In the case of the culture, arts and sport modules of the CHS, the values of the adjustment for all three weighting systems are so close to one, it is not necessary to take account of this in the calculation of standard error and confidence intervals.
While weighting for non-response (also called post-stratification) should reduce bias, it must be acknowledged that it will not eliminate bias. The reasons individuals choose to take part in surveys are complex and depend on lots of factors specific to the individual. As a result, the non-response biases in surveys are likely to be complex. Post-stratification works on the assumption that, by aligning the survey to the population along a small number of dimensions such as age and gender, many of these complex biases will reduce. However, it would be misleading to suggest that they will be eliminated.
Statistical significance in this report
Any statements in this report regarding differences between groups are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. This means that we can be 95% confident that the differences between groups are actual differences and have not just arisen by chance. The base numbers, sizes of percentages (relating to low self-efficacy and loneliness) or variance of scores (relating to wellbeing) have an effect on statistical significance. Therefore on occasion, a difference between two groups may be statistically significant while the same difference in percentage points or mean score between two other groups may not be statistically significant. The reason for this is because the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are to 0 or 100 or the smaller the variance in scores, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the difference between the proportions or mean scores is actually significant and has not just arisen by chance.
Official Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. Contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards - email:analyticsdivision@communities-ni.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Other notes
The following should be noted when interpreting figures and tables: