Nicola Sturgeon voted Scotland’s best politician of the last 30 years, while David Tennant leads the pack of Scottish screen actors

Best Scottish politician

The SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish public’s top choice for the best Scottish politician of the last 30 years, with 20% of the vote. In joint second place are Sturgeon’s predecessor as First Minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond, Labour’s ‘father of devolution’ Donald Dewar, and former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown – all on 8%. Ruth Davidson is the only Scottish Conservative politician to feature in the top 10, in fifth place with 7% of the vote.
However, differing views on the constitutional question lead to varying outcomes in the choice of top politician:

• A third (34%) of those who voted ‘Yes’ in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum consider Sturgeon to be the best politician, more than double the number who select Alex Salmond (16%). This compares with just 5% of ‘No’ voters who choose Sturgeon (and 3% Salmond).
• Ruth Davidson and Gordon Brown are closely matched for top choice among those who voted ‘No’ in 2014 (16% and 13% of ‘No’ voters respectively), but neither receives many votes from ‘Yes’ voters (1% and 5% respectively).
• Donald Dewar receives similar levels of support from both ‘Yes’ (10%) and ‘No’ voters (11%).

Best Scottish screen actor

In the world of TV and film, Scots rate David Tennant as the best Scottish screen actor of the last 30 years, with 19% of the vote. Close on Tennant’s heels is Sean Connery, who takes second place on 16%. Ewan McGregor is in third place on 9%, ahead of James McAvoy and Robert Carlyle in joint fourth place on 6%. Robbie Coltrane, Brian Cox and Gerard Butler tie for sixth place, each picked by 5% of the public.

Sean Connery is the top choice among those aged 55+ (23%) but is picked by only 5% of those aged 16-34. 

No women feature in the list of the Scottish public’s top 10 screen actors, with Kelly Macdonald as first woman.

Scottish society now compared with 30 years ago

Considering the societal changes in Scotland over the last thirty years, three quarters of the Scottish public (75%) say it is easier for people to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Scotland today, compared with 1995 – while 9% think it is about the same and just 4% say that it is harder. 

These results remain broadly similar by age group and gender.

The Scottish public are less positive about the life chances for those born in Scotland in 2025 compared with those born in 1995. More than four in ten (42%) think babies born in Scotland today will have worse lives than babies born in Scotland in 1995, outweighing the 29% who believe that babies born in Scotland today will have better lives.

Only the youngest age group are more optimistic, with a higher proportion of those aged 16-34 saying that the life of babies born today will be better (38%), rather than worse (32%), than the life of babies born in 1995.

Considering the quality of life for different generations, just under half of the Scottish public feel that their generation will have a better life than their parents’ generation (48%), with around three in ten (29%) saying that their generation will be worse off, and 16% considering that it will be about the same. 

However, there are considerable differences by age group, with the middle age group (35-54) most likely to say their generation has it worse than their parents’ generation (42%), compared with 30% among those aged 16-34 and 19% among those aged 55+.

Emily Gray, Managing Director of Ipsos Scotland, commented:

Nicola Sturgeon remains the most high-profile figure in Scottish politics, as Scotland’s longest-serving and first female First Minister. Her popularity ratings were often the envy of other Scottish political leaders during her time in office, and even in the wake of recent travails, including the lengthy investigation into SNP finances, she is the Scottish public’s top pick for best Scottish politician of the last 30 years.

Technical note: 

• Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,050 adults aged 16+ across Scotland. Interviews were conducted online between 12th and 22nd September 2025.
• Data are weighted to match the profile of the offline population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
• Where results do not sum to 100%, this may be due to computer rounding, multiple responses, or the exclusion of “don’t know” categories.