Interstellar radio-wave scattering leads to flux density fluctuations and pulse broadening of pulsar signals. However, Galactic distribution and the structure of the scattering medium are still poorly understood. Pulsar pulse broadening data available for a relatively large number of pulsars is well-suited for such investigations. We collected an up-to-date sample of publicly-available pulsar scattering data and introduced a new quantity - the reduced scattering strength to study the Galactic distribution of pulsar scattering in the Milky Way. We show that the current observations are dominated by two distinct pulsar populations: a local and an inner-Galactic one separated by {tilde}{tau}=10^-5.1^s.cm^6^/pc. The stronger electron density fluctuations associated with the inner-Galactic population naturally explain the observed steepening of pulsar scattering time - dispersion measure (DM) relation. We measure an inner disk region with 3kpc<r<5.5kpc from the Galactic center to have a scattering scale height of about 0.28kpc, supporting a correlation between interstellar radio scattering and structures associating with the ionized gas and stellar activities.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/527/5183/tableb1 (Pulsar scattering data and their sources)