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Key Facts

May 2008

Population

• Scotland’s estimated population on 30^th June 2006 was 5,116,900, a rise of 22,100 on the previous year and the highest since 1985.

• There has been a net in-migration to Scotland in each of the years since mid-year 2002.

• Since 1996, the population has increased most in West Lothian and East Lothian and fallen furthest in Eilean Siar and Dundee City.

• The population of Scotland is projected to rise from 5.12 million in 2006 to a high of 5.37 million in 2031 before slowly declining, falling below 5 million in 2076.

• In Scotland, the number of children aged under 16 is projected to decrease by 7 per cent between 2006 and 2031, while the number of people aged 75 and over is projected to increase by 81 per cent over the same period.

Vital Events

• The number of births in 2006 (55,690) was the highest since 1998.

• In Scotland in 2006, the total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman of child bearing age would expect to have) was 1.67, lower than for the other three countries of the UK.

• There were 55,093 deaths in Scotland in 2006, the lowest since the introduction of civil registration in 1855.

• In 2006, cancer, coronary heart disease and strokes were the three biggest causes of death, accounting for 27, 17 and 10 per cent, respectively, of all deaths.

• There were 421 drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2006, 10 per cent more than the highest previously recorded total of 382 in 2002.

• Life expectancy at birth for those born in Scotland in 2004-06 was 74.6 years for men and 79.6 years for women.

• There were 29,898 marriages and 13,014 divorces in Scotland in 2006.

Households

• In mid-2007, there were 2.3 million households in Scotland - over 270,000 more than in 1991. Over the last year, there has been an increase of 22,400 households (one per cent). 

• Most of the increase in households is due to more people living alone or in smaller households, rather than an increase in the overall population.  The number of one-person households is projected to increase from 809,000 (35 per cent of all households) in 2006 to over 1.2 million (44 per cent) in 2031. 

• The greatest projected increases are in households headed by people aged 60 or over.  Older people are more likely to live alone, or with just one other person.

• The average household size has fallen from 2.45 people in 1991 to 2.19 in 2006 and it is projected to decrease to 1.93 in 2031.