The Link Between Business Start-ups and Deprivation in Scotland : Entrepreneurship and Innovation Observatory Discussion Series

Tools

Rooney, Aidan (2025) The Link Between Business Start-ups and Deprivation in Scotland : Entrepreneurship and Innovation Observatory Discussion Series. Fraser of Allander Institute, Glasgow.

[thumbnail of Rooney-FAI-2025-The-Link-Between-Business-Start-ups-and-Deprivation-in-Scotland]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Rooney-FAI-2025-The-Link-Between-Business-Start-ups-and-Deprivation-in-Scotland.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 logo
Download (1MB)| Preview

Abstract

This discussion paper is the first in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Observatory discussion series. It explores how deprivation is linked to business start-up activity across Scotland’s council areas, and which aspects of deprivation appear to matter most. The research finds a clear negative relationship between deprivation and start-up rates: areas that are more deprived tend to see fewer new businesses being created. Looking across different measures of deprivation, the results suggest that some domains are more strongly associated with start-up activity than others, as illustrated below. Taken together, these findings underline the case for further research in this area, particularly work that draws on richer data to develop more robust — and potentially causal — evidence on how local conditions shape entrepreneurial activity.

ORCID iDs

Rooney, Aidan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8287-1330;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)