News Release
Registrar General's Annual Report for 2000 Published
30th July 2001
Last year saw the lowest number of births and deaths ever recorded in Scotland.
In Scotland in 2000 there were:
- 53,076 live births, 2,071 fewer than in 1999.
- 57,799 deaths, 2,482 fewer than in 1999.
- 30,367 marriages, 427 more than in 1999.
These are just some of the many statistics about Scotland's population contained in the Registrar General's Annual Report for 2000 which is published today.
There were 53,076 live births in 2000, 2,071 fewer than in 1999 and the lowest number ever recorded in Scotland. The crude birth rate was 10.4 per 1,000 population, also the lowest ever recorded, continuing the downward trend evident since the 1960s. Forty-seven per cent of live births were to mothers aged 30 and above and over two fifths (43 per cent) of live births were born outside marriage.
There were 738 pairs of twins, 18 sets of triplets and 1 set of quads.
There were 298 stillbirths registered in 2000, 12 more than in 1999; the stillbirth rate rose slightly from 5.2 per 1,000 births in 1999 to 5.6 in 2000. The number of infant deaths (all deaths in the first year of life) in 2000 was 305, 29 more than in 1999. The infant mortality rate was 5.7 per 1,000 live births. The number of stillbirths and infant deaths in 2000 were the second lowest totals ever recorded.
Expectation Of Life
In the period 1998-2000 the expectation of life at birth was nearly 73 for males and over 78 for females. Over the same period, the expectation for a male aged 65 was over 14 additional years and for a female, also aged 65, nearly 18 years.
The total number of deaths registered in Scotland in 2000 was 57,799, a reduction of 2,482 compared with 1999 and the lowest total ever recorded. The report contains detailed analyses of cause of death, by age, sex and area.
The two most common causes of death in 2000 were cancer (26 per cent) and ischaemic heart disease (22 per cent). Over the last ten years, the number of deaths from ischaemic heart disease has fallen by over a quarter, while the number of deaths from cancer has remained relatively unchanged.
In 2000 there were 30,367 marriages in Scotland, 427 more than in 1999. The average age at first marriage continued to rise and was 30.5 years for men and 28.6 for women in 2000, compared with 26.8 years and 25.1 years ten years ago. Nearly 30 per cent of people marrying in 2000 had been married previously and 40 per cent of all marriages were civil ceremonies.
There were 11,143 divorces in Scotland in 2000, the lowest number since 1981. 75 per cent of divorces in 2000 were granted on grounds of non-cohabitation compared with under 60 per cent ten years ago and just under 40 per cent in 1981. The proportion of people divorced in 2000 who had been divorced previously (15 and 14 per cent for men and women, respectively) was nearly twice the level in 1981 (eight and seven per cent for men and women, respectively). Over half of the marriages dissolved in 2000 lasted more than 13 years.
In 2000 there were 391 adoptions, the lowest number since 1931 and just over a third of the number recorded in the early 1980s.
Notes For News Editors
- Registrar General for Scotland, Annual Report, 2000 (General Register Office for Scotland, 2001 £15.00. ISBN 1-874451-62-1). This, the 146th Annual Report of the Registrar General, is available on the GROS website, free of charge.
- Corresponding information for England and Wales is published by the Office for National Statistics
(020 7533 5702). Some UK comparisons for 1999 are shown in Table 1.7.
- From 1 January 2000, deaths in Scotland have been coded using the latest, tenth, revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, and Related Health Problems. All cause of death information for 2000 presented in this report is based on the new classification. Deaths for earlier years were coded to earlier revisions.
- To assist users to assess any discontinuties arising from the introduction of the new classification, a bridge-coding exercise was carried out an all deaths registered in 1999. The results of this exercise, together with further information on ICD10 are presented in Appendix 2.
- The Annual Report also contains statistics on Scotland's population. The estimated population of Scotland on 30 June 2000 was 5,114,600, a decrease of 4,600 compared with the previous year. The population is projected to remain relatively stable at around five million over the next twenty five years. A News Release (1042/2001) announcing the latest, mid-2000, population estimates for Scotland was issued on 23 April 2001. The Registrar General's population estimates for mid-2001, to be published next year, will be the first to take account of the results of the Census of Population on 29 April 2001.
- An Occasional Paper presenting more detailed analyses of marriages at Gretna over the last twenty five years will be published by the Registrar General on 1 August 2001. A copy of the paper will be available from the GROS website (www.gro-scotland.gov.uk) or by contacting GROS Statisitcs Customer Services using our Contact Form.
