Scotlands Population
Recent Trends
Last updated: April 2018
On 30 June 2017, the population of Scotland was 5,424,800, the largest population ever in Scotland for the eighth year running. Scotland’s population increased by 20,100 people (0.4%) in the year to mid-2017. This is a smaller increase than that seen in the year to mid-2016 (0.6%) but within the range of population change we have seen over the past ten years (where annual growth rates varied between 0.3% to 0.7%). Natural change, births minus deaths, has not contributed to Scotland’s recent population growth. Across Scotland, there were 3,800 more deaths than births in the year to mid-2017, compared to 800 more deaths than births in the previous year. This was due to a decrease in the number of births and an increase in the number of deaths between mid-2016 and mid-2017. The population of Scotland is ageing. In mid-2017, 19% of the population were aged 65 and over compared with 16% in mid-2007. This is partly due to the fact that people are living longer and partly due to the age structure of Scotland’s population. Over the year to mid-2017, Scotland had positive net migration with 23,900 more people coming to Scotland than leaving, from both overseas and the rest of the UK. However there has been a reduction of 25% over the last year – previously in the year to mid-2016, overall net migration was 31,700 people. We can look separately at trends in net migration from the rest of the UK and from overseas to understand what’s driving the reduction in overall net migration. Over the year to mid-2017, this shows:
Estimated population of Scotland, 1957 to 2017
Sources: Community Health Index (CHI) patient movements, National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) patient movements, Personal Demographic Service (PDS) patient movements, Long-Term International Migration estimates from the Office for National Statistics, Armed Forces data from the Ministry of Defense (MoD), Prisons data from Scottish Government Prision Statistics, Asylum Seeker and Refugee data from the Home Office, Scotland’s Census 2011.
Over the last 60 years, the population of Scotland increased from 5.12 million in 1957 to 5.24 million in 1974 before declining to a recent low of 5.06 million in 2000, as seen in Figure 1. Since then, Scotland’s population has increased every year for the past 17 years from 5.06 million in 2000 to a record high of 5.42 million in 2017. Between 2007 and 2017, Scotland’s population has increased by a total of 254,800 people with an average increase of 0.5% each year.
Link
Mid-2017 Population Estimates Scotland (National Records of Scotland website)