The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP)

Living locally and 20-minute neighbourhoods in Scotland

Living Locally 🏠

20-minute neighbourhoods in Scotland

The places we live, work and socialise hold significant importance in modern life and attention to it is essential for planners, policy makers and public health professionals. Designing and creating healthy places is at the forefront of urban planning and sits at the heart of many national and intergovernmental principles and policies, such as the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.​ ​The concept of a 20-minute neighbourhood and living locally is receiving interest and strong policy support from local and national governments worldwide, including Scotland. The concept is rooted in a compact city approach that encourages the development of local areas with short walking, wheeling and cycling distances from residents' home to access public transport, public open space and good destination accessibility to facilities and services for local daily living. This design policy is is expected to have benefits for health, wellbeing and can help reduce carbon emissions through the reduction of the need to travel unsustainably and through ideas around town centres, compact growth and quality of access.  

How good is your place? The Place Standard tool


SLLDP 🌍

The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP) is an interactive online map that shows all residential locations in Scotland whether they have access to the following 12 living locally domains:

12 living locally domains

Access to each living locally domains was calculated for all residential locations in Scotland for the following network distances: 

  • 15-minute neighbourhood (600 meters of home) ​
  • 20-minute neighbourhood (800 meters of home). ​
  • 30-minute neighbourhood (1200 meters of home). 

The domains were chosen using the Place Standard Tool and based on the availability of robust national datasets. ​

The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP )was created by researchers at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, and developed with the Scottish Government. 


15-minute neighbourhoods ⏰

7.5-minute walk of residential locations (600 meters)

The interactive map shows for all 12 living locally domains whether residential locations in Scotland have access to 1 or more of these domains within a 600 meter network buffer. A 600 meter buffer was applied as this is a commonly applied distance measure equating to an average 7.5-minute walking distance for an adult.

Data are provided at individual postcode level and aggregated to the proportion of residential locations that have access to each domain for all Scottish datazones and Local Authorities.​

How to use the tool:

  1. Search for a postcode, street name, town or city.​
  2. Turn on the data layer you wish to interpret (postcode, datazone, local authority)
  3. Click on the location on the map.​
  4. The pop-up will describe:​
  • Postcodes: Yes or No whether each of the domains are available within a 600m network distance of a home.​
  • Datazone: The proportion of residential locations within the datazone that have access to each domain within a 600m network distance.​
  • Local Authority: The proportion of residential locations within the Local Authority that have access to each domain within a 600m network distance.

20-minute neighbourhoods ⏰

10-minute walk of residential locations (800 meters)

The interactive map shows for all 12 living locally domains whether residential locations in Scotland have access to 1 or more of these domains within a 800 meter network buffer. The Scottish Government’s ambition is to support the creation of 20-minute neighbourhoods, which is a 800 meter buffer, equating to an average 10-minute walking distance each way for an adult.

​Data are provided at individual postcode levels and aggregated to the proportion of residential locations that have access to each domain for all Scottish datazones and Local Authorities.

How to use the tool:

  1. Search for a postcode, street name, town or city.​
  2. Turn on the data layer you wish to interpret (postcode, datazone, local authority)
  3. Click on the location on the map.​
  4. The pop-up will describe:
  • Postcodes: Yes or No whether each of the domains are available within a 800m network distance of a home.​
  • Datazone: The proportion of residential locations within the datazone that have access to each domain within a 800m network distance.​
  • Local Authority: The proportion of residential locations within the Local Authority that have access to each domain within a 800m network distance.

30-minute neighbourhoods⏰

15-minute walk of residential locations (1200 meters)

The interactive map shows for all 12 living locally domains whether residential locations in Scotland have access to 1 or more of these domains within a 1200 meter network buffer. A 1200 meter buffer was applied as this is commonly applied distance measure equating to an average 15-minute walking distance for adult.

Data are provided at individual postcode levels and aggregated to the proportion of residential locations that have access to each domain for all Scottish datazones and Local Authorities.​

How to use the tool:

  1. Search for a postcode, street name, town or city.​
  2. Turn on the data layer you wish to interpret (postcode, datazone, local authority)
  3. Click on the location on the map.​
  4. The pop-up will describe:
  • Postcodes: Yes or No whether each of the domains are available within a 1200m network distance of a home.​
  • Datazone: The proportion of residential locations within the datazone that have access to each domain within a 1200m network distance.​
  • Local Authority: The proportion of residential locations within the Local Authority that have access to each domain within a 1200m network distance.

Place Standard 📝

The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP) provides national data relating to half of the 14 place standard domains. However, this data shouldn’t be used in isolation - successful local living models hold experiential data in high regard which tells them of lived experience and therefore more about the quality of places.  The Place Standard Tool can support the generation of further discussions and information gathering to support the understanding of living locally.”

 Click here  to access the Place Standard Tool.

The Place Standard tool provides a simple framework to structure conversations about place. It allows you to think about the physical elements of a place (for example its buildings, spaces, and transport links) as well as the social aspects (for example whether people feel they have a say in decision making). ​

The tool provides prompts for discussions, allowing you to consider all the elements of a place in a methodical way. The tool pinpoints the assets of a place as well as areas where a place could improve.


Supporting Information 📍

The full methodology and description of domain data are provided in the report published in  Social Science & Medicine . This can be accessed by  clicking here .​

​Referencing the data tool: Olsen, JR., Thornton, L., Tregonning, G., Mitchell, R. (2022) Nationwide equity assessment of the 20-minute neighbourhood in the Scottish context: a socio-spatial proximity analysis of residential locations. Social Science & Medicine. Volume 315, 2022.

​Open Access Data: The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP) data are available in spreadsheet and shapefile format (subject to data licence requirements). These can be accessed by contacting  Jonathan.Olsen@glasgow.ac.uk  ​

Superfast broadband coverage data was obtained from the  Ofcom Connected Nations report: Spring 2022 .

The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP) was built by Jessica Hepburn and Jonathan Olsen (MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow) and developed with The Scottish Government. ​

​Funding: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number MC_UU_00022/4] and Chief Scientist Office [grant number SPHSU19].

12 living locally domains

The Scottish Living Locally Data Portal (SLLDP )was created by researchers at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, and developed with the Scottish Government.