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Estimates of population numbers for 2004 to 2007 by country of birth and nationality from the Annual Population Survey (APS) have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These include Scotland and can be found on the ONS website.
The figures differ from the GROS mid-year population estimates as the APS excludes students in halls who do not have a UK resident parent and people in most other types of communal establishments (e.g. hotels, boarding houses, hostels, mobile home sites etc).
They show that the number of people living in Scotland who were born abroad grew to 255,000 in 2007. This is an increase of 51,000 on 2004 when it was 204,000. The 5 most common overseas countries of birth for people living in Scotland in 2007 were Poland (28,000), Germany (22,000), Republic of Ireland (19,000), India (18,000) and the United States of America (14,000). The comparable figures from the 2001 Census were Poland (3,000), Germany (19,000), Republic of Ireland (22,000), India (11,000) and the USA (11,000). Equivalent data on nationality is also available.
Council area level estimates, broken down into the two categories "UK" and "Non-UK", can be found in the tables below.
The tables below have been made available as Excel spreadsheet files and can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) or Comma Separated Value (CSV). When opening these files your browser, depending on how it's been configured, will prompt to either open the file or save it to disk. Maximum file size is 40 Kb.
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Table 1 |
Estimated population resident in Scotland by council area and country of birth, 2004-2007
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Table 2 |
Estimated population resident in Scotland by council area and nationality, 2004-2007
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Table 3 |
Updates to Estimated population resident in Scotland by council area and country of birth
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Table 4 |
Updates to Estimated population resident in Scotland, by council area and nationality
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Tables 1 and 3 show estimates of the Scottish population by Council Area and country of birth.
Tables 2 and 4 show estimates of the Scottish population by Council Area and nationality.
All tables are produced using the Annual Population Survey (APS).
Tables 1 and 2 are updated on an annual basis
Tables 3 and 4 are updated on a quarterly basis
The Council Area and Scotland total figures differ from the GROS mid-year population estimates as the APS excludes students in halls who do not have a UK resident parent and people in most other types of communal establishments (e.g. hotels, boarding houses, hostels, mobile home sites, etc).
Figures have been rounded independently and may not add to totals.
Estimates where the coefficient of variation (see section 4 below for an explanation of this) is greater than 20 per cent have been suppressed as these are not considered reliable for practical purposes.
Nationality refers to that stated by the respondent during the interview. It is possible that an individual's nationality may change, but the respondent's country of birth cannot change. This means that country of birth gives a more robust estimate of change over time.
There are two main reasons for differences between nationality and country of birth:
1. As those born abroad remain in the UK they often apply to become British nationals
2. Many people born abroad have British nationality. For example, this may be the case for people whose parents were in the military services and were based abroad when they were born.
The preferred measure of defining migration is to use country of birth because this cannot change, whereas nationality can change over time.
The Annual Population Survey (APS) comprises data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), plus data from the Annual Local (Area) Labour Force Survey Boosts for England, Scotland and Wales.
The LFS collects a wide range of information from people resident in private households including data on country of birth and nationality. The data can be used as an indicator of the non-UK born or foreign born migrant numbers in the UK. The population covered is all people resident in private households. The LFS excludes most communal establishments although it does cover most staff resident in National Health Service accommodation. Students in halls of residence are covered by proxy through their parents and thus foreign students living in halls of residence are not likely to be covered – though those living in private households will be. The impact of this coverage of communal establishments is that the number of foreign born migrants may be under-reported.
The APS data are based on calendar quarters and are published quarterly on a rolling annual basis, covering the periods January to December; April to March; July to June; and October to September. The data in this release covers the period January to December.
The APS data for Scotland (which includes the boost to the LFS sample in Scotland) includes approximately 23,000 households each year. The survey is carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Further information on the APS and LFS is available here:
Standard error is an estimate of the margin of error associated with a sample survey. The coefficient of variation indicates the robustness of each estimate. It is defined as:
Standard error of the estimate x 100
Estimate
A confidence interval provides an estimated range of values in which an actual data value is likely to fall. The confidence interval provided is 95 per cent interval. This means that, across the dataset as a whole, the confidence intervals are expected to contain the true values around 95 per cent of the time. It is obtained as:
1.96 x standard error
Page last updated: 17 November 2008
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