Datasets of choice experiment surveys on Places to Live, Ways to Travel, and Local Food conducted in Scotland

This submission derives from Activity 4.1 "Understanding behavioural factors" of the project "JHI-E1-1 - Informing a socially and spatially just future for the Scottish rural economy: Pinpointing opportunities, assets and support needs", funded by the Strategic Research Programme (2022-2027) of the Scottish Government’s Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services (RESAS) Division.

The submission consists of two datasets derived from discrete choice experiment (DCE) surveys, and the text of the questionnaires, conducted with Scottish dwellers to investigate their preferences respectively for (a) different localities as Places to Live; (b) different means of transport as Ways to Travel; (c) different vegetables mixes as Local Food.

The datasets are provided in Excel format to ensure that different sheets and related metadata are included in the same file and are always downloaded jointly.

The dataset "JHI-E1-1_A4-1_rural_economy_dataset_2023" derives from four different surveys conducted between 24 August and 11 November 2023 on a sample of mostly rural and town dwellers: (a) a survey on Places to Live; (b) a survey on Ways to Travel; (c) a survey on Local Food; (d) a "combined survey" including all of the above. Respondents could compile one or more of surveys (a)-(c), or survey (d). All the responses are appended together. The dataset consists of five sheets: (1) "survey" (one row per respondent, regardless of the specific survey compiled), which reports their socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes as well as other information derived from the complementary survey; (2) "food_choices" (24 rows per respondent), which reports their choices in the Local Food DCE, if compiled; (3) "transport_choices" (36 rows per respondent), which reports their choices in the Ways to Travel DCE, if compiled; (4) "place_choices" (24 rows per respondent), which reports their choices in the Places to Live DCE, if compiled; (5) "metadata", which describes all the variables (one table per data sheet). The total number of respondents is 341, of which 222 responded to the Local Food DCE (1,741 choices), 246 to the Ways to Travel DCE (2,181 choices), and 250 to the Places to Live DCE (1,956 choices). The PDF file "JHI-E1-1_A4-1_rural_economy_questionnaire_2023" reports the text of the "combined survey", of which the other three are a sub-section.

The dataset "JHI-E1-1_A4-1_places_to_live_dataset_2025" derives from a shortened and refined version of the Places to Live survey, conducted between 19-31 March 2025 on a sample representative of the whole Scottish population in terms of age, gender, household type, and urban-rural locality of residence. The dataset consists of three sheets: (1) "survey" (one row per respondent), which reports their socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes as well as other information derived from the complementary survey; (2) "choices" (24 rows per respondent), which reports their choices in the Places to Live DCE; (3) "metadata", which describes all the variables (one table per data sheet). The total number of respondents is 1007 (8,056 choices). The PDF file "JHI-E1-1_A4-1_places_to_live_questionnaire_2025" reports the text of the survey.

Made in Aberdeen (Scotland, UK) on 18 September 2025; Dr. Simone Piras.