Scotland’s economy was in recession from the summer of 2008 to the autumn of 2009. If the recession has had an effect on Scotland’s total population, the figures in this report should make it clear because it covers the calendar year 2009.
There is actually little, if any, evidence that the recession has affected Scotland’s total population. There were just under 1,000 fewer births in 2009 than in 2008 – but there were still 1,200 more births in 2009 than in 2007. The steady decline in the number of deaths continued. Almost 22,000 more people moved to Scotland than left it in 2008/2009, slightly more than in the previous year. This was the third-highest movement of people into Scotland since current records began 60 years ago.
So, despite the recession, people are finding Scotland an attractive place to live and to raise children. But there is another side to the story. While the number of deaths has continued to fall and life expectancy has increased in every local authority area, the life expectancy of men and women in Scotland is still lower than the life expectancy of people in the rest of the UK and the European Union (except the East European member states). And there are major inequalities of life expectancy within Scotland. For the average man in north and east Glasgow, life expectancy is eight years shorter than the average in neighbouring East Dunbartonshire. For women, the difference is around six years.
The next census, which will create a complete picture of Scotland’s society, will provide important information that will help us to work out the reasons for the relatively poor life expectancy in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament has approved 27 March 2011 as the date of the 2011 Census, the first census since 2001. To mark both the 10-year milestone and the fifteenth census for which the Registrar General for Scotland has been responsible, the ‘special subject’ chapter of this year’s report is a history of the census in Scotland. Scotland was the first part of Britain to carry out a census. This was done in the mid-1750s, and showed a population of 1,265,380. The first regular census was in 1801, introduced because of the effect of an increasing population on food production, immigration and colonisation. It set the population at 1,559,068. In 1861, William Pitt Dundas (the first Scottish Registrar General) took on responsibility for the census, and the General Register Office for Scotland has taken a census every decade since then (except in 1941, because of the Second World War).
Over that time, the census has become steadily more detailed and more valuable. Chapter 10 of this report tells of the changes in each census, up to 2001. We are well-prepared to carry out a highly accurate count of Scotland’s population, and its social characteristics, next year.