Scotland’s Changing Population

Registrar General’s annual review of demographic trends published

National Records of Scotland (NRS) today publishes ‘Scotland’s Population 2013 – the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends’. It is accompanied by a wide range of other statistics on births, stillbirths, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships, deaths and life expectancy, which appear in the Vital Events Reference Tables, in ‘Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2013’, and in website sections on deaths from certain causes and national life tables.

The report is a compendium that brings together key demographic information from a range of publications produced by NRS. It has been produced annually since it was first published in 1855. It also includes an infographics supplement for the first time.

The Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends shows that:

• The estimated population of Scotland on 30 June 2013 was 5,327,700, the highest ever.
• There were 56,014 births registered in Scotland in 2013. This was 2,013 (3.5 per cent) fewer births than in 2012. There were 54,700 deaths registered in Scotland in 2013. This was 237 (0.4 per cent) less than in 2012.
• In the year to 30 June 2013, 75,900 people came to Scotland (from the rest of the UK and from overseas) and 65,900 left Scotland (to the rest of the UK and overseas). This gives a net-gain of 10,000 which is lower than previous years.
• There were 27,547 marriages in Scotland in 2013. The average age at which people marry for the first time has increased by around two years since 2003, to 33.0 years for men and 31.2 years for women.
• In 2013, there were 489 adoptions recorded in Scotland. The number of adoptions each year is around a quarter of what it used to be in the early 1970s.
• In mid-2013, there were 2.4 million households in Scotland, which is an increase of around 171,000 over the past ten years.

The number of households in Scotland is projected to increase

Among the other information published by NRS today is that there were, in 2013:

• 1,100 alcohol-related deaths, 20 (2 per cent) more than in 2012;
• 526 drug-related deaths, 55 (9 per cent) fewer than in 2012;
• 795 probable suicides, 35 (4 per cent) fewer than in 2012.

The full publications Scotland's Population 2013 - The Registrar General's Annual Review of Demographic Trends and Drug-Related Deaths in Scotland in 2013 are available on the NRS website.