United Kingdom: Scotland’s population increased by migration

United Kingdom: Scotland’s population increased by migration

National Records of Scotland

National Records of Scotland released Scotland’s Population 2015.

Tim Ellis, the Registrar General of Scotland, said:

The figures produced by National Records of Scotland paint a picture of our nation in 2015. The Registrar General’s Annual Review has been published since 1855, and over that time my predecessors have faithfully recorded the state of our nation, and told our story – one of changes, both big and small.

The population in 1855 was 2,978,065. This year’s figures show our population is still increasing, mostly due to migration, and in 2015 was at its highest ever at 5,373,000 people. The population is continuing to age and this change will bring both opportunities and challenges in the years ahead.

As well as more people moving to Scotland than leaving, fewer babies were born during 2015 and there were more deaths than in 2014.

The most common causes of death are still cancer, respiratory system diseases and ischaemic (coronary) heart disease.

Although mortality rates in Scotland have generally fallen more slowly than in the rest of the UK and elsewhere in Europe, the improvements over the last 60 years are still considerable and the impact is reflected in the increase in expectation of life. Despite these improvements inequalities remain within Scotland. For example, males born around 2012 in the 10 per cent least deprived areas in Scotland could expect to live 12.5 years more than males born in the 10 per cent most deprived areas.

The report also includes the invited chapter ‘Migrants in Scotland’s population histories since 1850’, written by Prof. Michael Anderson, Professor Emeritus of Economic History and Honorary Professorial Fellow of the University of Edinburgh. This chapter draws on material from his on-going research into the population histories of different parts and occupational groups of Scotland, in the context of wider British and European population change, and explores some of the key patterns and roles of migration in Scotland’s population histories since the middle of the nineteenth century.

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 is accompanied by an update on a wide range of other statistics on births, stillbirths, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths, which appear in the Vital Events Reference Tables and in website sections on deaths from certain causes.