Birth, Deaths and Marriages in 2005

22 September 2005

The number of births from January to June 2005, has reached the highest level since 1999, the Registrar General announced today as he issued his second Vital Events Quarterly Return for 2005.

Provisional figures for births, deaths and marriages registered during the period 1 April to 30 June 2005 shows that for the first half of the year, as a whole, births in Scotland were at the highest level since 1999.

Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven said:

"We should not make too much of quarterly figures like these.

"However, it is encouraging to note that in the second quarter of this year the number of births (13,544) was 1.5 percent higher than in the second quarter of 2004, and that taking the past 6 months as a whole, births have been at a higher level than we have seen for six years.

“Deaths showed the usual seasonal decline, although at 13,667 they were 0.7 percent above the level of one year earlier

"For Scotland as a whole deaths slightly exceeded births, by 0.1 percent, but births outnumbered deaths in seven out of the 15 Health board areas.

"Marriages in the second quarter of 2005 (8,630) were slightly down on the second quarter of 2004."

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