Wednesday 18th June 2025, 3:36pm
The Future Trends for Scotland report looks at 60 global trends spanning areas including politics, the economy, society, technology, health and the environment, to inform strategic decision-making over the next 10 to 20 years.
To explore the trends that may be important for Scotland over the next 10 to 20 years, the first phase of the Horizon Scanning Project 2024-25 focused on gathering evidence through a review of published literature and stakeholder interviews.
The literature review focused on understanding the evidence to identify how global and national trends are developing in Scotland, and which are likely to be particularly important over this time period. Following this, over 100 stakeholders – including senior leaders from the Scottish Government and the wider public sector in Scotland, representatives from the third and private sectors and academics – were interviewed to capture a wide range of insights and views on the trends that could be important for Scotland in the future.
An in-depth review of all the material gathered from this phase was then undertaken in order to synthesise a list of 60 trends organised across six overarching themes:
More details on the evidence and interview insights that inform each trend are available in ‘Future Trends for Scotland: Project Methodology’.
“The world around us is changing in ways that can be difficult to predict. By using insights and evidence about what is happening now, we can anticipate what the future might look like to build a prosperous Scotland."
Deputy First Minister Kate ForbesFull article and Trend Pack : Scottish Government
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