Scotland’s Mid-Year Population Estimates

The estimated population of Scotland on 30 June 2006 was 5,116,900, a rise of 22,100 on the previous year and an increase of 52,700 since mid-2001;

Over the last ten years, Scotland’s population has increased by 0.5 per cent (+24,710) from 5.09 million to 5.12 million;
In the twelve months up to 30 June 2006, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 300 (compared with 2,300 the previous year). Compared with the previous year there were more births (+1.3 per cent) and fewer deaths (-2.3 per cent);
Over the year there was a net migration gain of 21,200, including a net gain of 8,900 people from the rest of the UK and a net gain of 12,700 from overseas (including asylum seekers);
Over the year 53,300 people came to Scotland from England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 44,400 left Scotland to go in the opposite direction. The net inflow of 8,900 is lower than the previous year’s 12,500 net inflow reflecting fewer people coming to Scotland, while the number of people leaving Scotland to go to other parts of the UK remained the same as the previous year;
The net inflow from overseas exceeded that from England , Wales and Northern Ireland. Over the year 42,200 people (including asylum seekers) came to Scotland from overseas and 29,500 left Scotland to go overseas. The net inflow of 12,700 is higher than the previous year’s net inflow of 7,300 from overseas;
Of Council areas, Aberdeenshire had the largest percentage population increase in 2005-06 at 1.4 per cent. City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Moray, Stirling and West Lothian also had increases of 1 per cent or more. Inverclyde had the largest percentage population decrease at 0.7 per cent, followed by East Dunbartonshire and Shetland Islands with percentage decreases of 0.5 per cent;
Of NHS Board areas, Lothian (+1.1 per cent), Orkney (+0.9 per cent), Grampian (+0.8 per cent) and Highland (+0.7 per cent) had the largest percentage population increases in 2005-06. There were population decreases in Shetland (-0.5 per cent), Dumfries & Galloway (-0.2 per cent), Ayrshire & Arran (-0.2 per cent) and Western Isles (-0.1 per cent);
Scotland’s average population density was 66 persons per square kilometre and ranged from 8 persons per square kilometre in Highland Council area to 3,309 persons per square kilometre in Glasgow City Council area.

The full report Mid-2006 Population Estimates Scotland is available from this website

Notes for news editors

Today’s report gives estimated population figures for the whole of Scotland and for council and NHS Board areas. The full publication (including local authority and NHS board breakdowns) and previous years’ population estimates can be downloaded from our Population Estimates Statistics page.
Comparable figures to today’s report for Northern Ireland will be published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) in July 2007 and figures for England, Wales and the UK will be published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in August 2007.
Information on births and deaths is derived from registration data for the period from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006.
Information about migrants is derived from three key sources of data. The National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) provides information about moves between health board areas within the UK, with migration between council areas within Scotland estimated using data from the Community Health Index (CHI). The source of the information about overseas migration is the International Passenger Survey (IPS). It is based on a small sample for Scotland, and hence there is a higher risk of error than with the remainder of the population estimates.
The UN definition of an international migrant is someone who changes their country of residence for 12 months or more. Therefore, short-term seasonal migrants (likely to include some migrant workers from Eastern Europe) will not be counted in the migration estimates nor in the population estimates. ONS is currently leading research into ways of measuring the number of short-term migrants.
The 2001 Census results published in September 2002, showed that previous population estimates had exaggerated the population of Scotland by some 50,000 - largely because of errors in estimates of migration in the 1980s and 1990s. To ensure that future estimates do not continue to overestimate the population, a component for unmeasured migration has been included in the latest figures – a reduction of 1,500 people. More information on these adjustments can be found in the ‘Comparisons with previous estimates and implications for revisions’ paper.