Advocacy Facts & Figures

Tourism

• The UK-wide Heritage industry is worth about £50billion p.a. and supports over a million jobs (HLF 2016)
• There are 332,000 known historic environment sites in Scotland (SHEA 2018)
• The historic environment contributes in excess of £2.3 billion to Scotland’s economy, with £1.9 billion in GVA (SHEA 2018)
• 15.8 million people visited historic environment attractions in 2017/18 (SHEA 2018)
• Total spend by visitors to Scotland in 2015 was £8.87 billion.
• The historic environment receives 18 Million visits per year, and these visits support a network of 66,000 jobs (SHEA 2018)
• Edinburgh as a World Heritage Site is worth between £1.2 – £1.4 billion (EWH 2016)
• 68% of visitors to Edinburgh come because of its historic vernacular, bringing an estimated expenditure of £1.16 billion p. a. (EWH 2016)

Buildings

• 52% of all of Scotland’s homes have disrepair to critical elements, a decrease of 5% from 2018 (SHCS 2019)
• 71% of traditionally built homes (pre-1919) have disrepair to critical elements, a decrease of 2% from 2018 (SHCS 2019)
• Traditionally dwellings constructed before 1919, make up approximately 19% of Scotland’s building stock (SHCS 2019)
• In 2019, 42.9% of all dwellings failed to meet Scottish Housing Quality Standards (SHCS 2019)
• 31.8% of homes in Scotland failed the SHQS due to Energy Efficiency, while 12.2% failed due to not being Healthy, Safe and Secure properties (SHCS 2019)
• 5% of A-listed buildings are on the Buildings at Risk Register (HES 2018)
• Approximately 83% of Scotland’s scheduled monuments were in optimal or satisfactory condition (SHEA 2018)
• There are 8,121 scheduled monuments in Scotland (SHEA 2018)

Participation in the Historic Environment

• 35% of adults in Scotland visited a historic or archaeological site in 2017 – a 7% increase since 2012 (SHEA 2018)
• Scotland’s historic environment engaged over 17,100 volunteers in 2015 (Volunteering & Historic Environment 2016)
• Volunteers provide 121,000 days, an average of 7 days per volunteer to help conserve the historic environment, a contribution worth £14.7 million (Volunteering & Historic Environment 2016)
• 46% of Scotland’s historic environment organisations are run entirely by volunteers (Volunteering & Historic Environment 2016)
• Historic Houses Association Scotland has 350 Friends and 220 Members (property or garden owners) (SHEA 2016)
• In 2017 there were 79 Adopt a Monument Projects, compared with 32 in 2014 (SHEA 2018)

Investment

• Historic Environment Scotland, The National Trust for Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund invested over £184 Million in Scotland in 2017/18 (SHEA 2018)