Over half of Scots believe the total number of people coming into Scotland is too high

Key findings

• New results from Ipsos in Scotland show over half of the public (55%) believe that immigration levels into Scotland are either ‘much too high’ or ‘a bit too high’. Just 11% consider the level of immigration into Scotland to be too low, while 27% say the levels are about right.
• Two thirds (66%) of Scots say that the total number of people coming into the UK is either ‘much too high’ or ‘a bit too high’. 20% say the levels are about right, while 6% think they are too low.
• An identical proportion of the British public (66%) surveyed by Ipsos in February 2026 thought the total number of people coming into the UK was too high. This indicates that Scots’ views on UK immigration levels are not particularly different from those of the British public overall.

• More of the public think that immigrants in Scotland have a negative impact on Scotland as a whole (39%) than a positive impact (33%), while 23% say that immigrants have neither a positive nor a negative impact.
• Public views on the impact of immigration on specific aspects of life in Scotland are mixed. While 1 in 3 (33%) consider immigrants to make a positive cultural contribution, more than half (57%) view immigrants as having a negative impact on the availability of housing in Scotland.
• On balance, Scots also consider immigrants to have more of a negative than a positive impact on the NHS (46% negative impact, 28% positive impact), public services generally (42% negative impact, 23% positive impact), crime levels (42% negative impact, 11% positive impact) and schools (38% negative impact, 21% positive impact).

Commenting on the findings, Emily Gray, Managing Director of Ipsos in Scotland, said:

Immigration is an issue that has risen up the Scottish public’s agenda lately, with Reform UK supporters particularly likely to say this is an important issue. Although immigration policy is reserved to Westminster rather than devolved to Holyrood, over a quarter of the public tell us that the issue of immigration will be important to their decision about which party to vote for at the upcoming Scottish Parliament election – much higher than ahead of the previous election in 2021, when just 1% mentioned this as an important issue. While the public recognise some of the contributions made by immigrants in Scotland, a majority feel that numbers are too high. and the public are overall negative about the impact of immigration on housing availability. These results underline the importance of having a more nuanced policy debate on immigration in Scotland and understanding how, from the public’s perspective, the perceived positive impacts of immigration can best be balanced against the negatives.

Technical note:

• Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,027 adults aged 16+ Scotland. Polling was conducted online between the 6th-16th March 2026.
• Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.