Progress: 2017 in numbers

This year we opened the tallest bridge in the UK, delivered 22,000 baby boxes and seen more students gain a place at Scottish universities than ever before.

The list of SNP government achievements is long and wide-ranging. Here’s how we’ve kept Scotland moving forward in 2017.

• Health spending in Scotland reached a record level – over £13 billion in 2017.

• The £1.4 billion Queensferry Crossing opened in August, and was delivered £245 million below budget. The new crossing is the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world.

• 22,000 baby boxes have been delivered, supporting families with essentials for the first weeks and months of their lives. 

• This year £120 million went direct to headteachers to raise attainment – contributing to a 543 increase in teacher numbers between 2016 and 2017.

• The number of people working in our health service is at a record high –  increasing by 12,400 since 2007.

• Mental health investment reached £1 billion for the first time this year. And £150 million is being invested over the next five years to improve services and find better ways of working.

• The number of affordable homes delivered by the Scottish Government since 2007 passed the 71,000 mark – including 49,000 homes for social rent.

• Recorded crime is at a 43-year low.

• We’ve met our target to reduce youth unemployment by 40 per cent – four years early – and it is now amongst the lowest rates in the EU.
  

• Around 100,000 business premises now pay no rates at all thanks to the Small Business Bonus scheme.

• The number of registered businesses in Scotland has reached 176,400, the highest number on record.
  

• Business research and development spend in Scotland grew by over £1 billion for the first time in 2017-18 – a 69 per cent real terms increase since 2007.
  

• 19 per cent more renewable electricity was generated in the first three quarters of 2017 than in the same period in 2016.

• We have announced new plans to reduce carbon emissions by 66 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2032 – and to legislate for a new statutory target for a 90 per cent reduction by 2050.
  

• We have committed £50 million in a new Ending Homelessness Together fund to support anti-homelessness initiatives and pilot new solutions to drive faster change.

• Scotland now has 1,000 real Living Wage accredited employers – one quarter of all accredited organisations in the UK.

• Since the start of the recession, productivity growth in Scotland has increased by 7.6 per cent, while it has grown by only 0.6 per cent in the UK as a whole.

• Scotland’s international exports – valued at £28.7 billion in 2017 – are up 41 per cent under the SNP.
  

• The number of Scottish students getting a place at a university in Scotland is at an all-time high of 27,830.

• In the last two years the number of young people from disadvantaged areas going to university has risen by 20 per cent, to record levels.
  
• We’re on track to deliver 250 km of new roads by Spring 2018 – the result of £2.81 billion of investment over the last decade.