Chapter 8 – Adoptions
The Registrar General for Scotland registers adoptions under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. The Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act 1930 first provided for the registration of adopted children.
Adoptions include (for example) cases of step-parents adopting their spouse/partner’s children as well as couples adopting children who are not related in any way to them. The figures include small numbers of foreign adoptions registered in Scotland, and parental orders granted following a birth by a surrogate mother.
Following a steady rise to a post-war peak of 2,298 in 1946, the total number of adoptions fell back to 1,236 in 1959 before peaking again at 2,268 in 1969. Since then, the annual number of adoptions declined fairly steadily to around 400 in 2000 and has fluctuated around the level of 400 to 450 thereafter.
The Registrar General recorded 466 adoptions during 2010. This is 11 more than in 2009, but half the number recorded per year in the late 1980s, and around a quarter of the number recorded per year in the early 1970s.
Of the children adopted in 2010, 27 per cent were adopted by a step-parent and 70 per cent were adopted by non-relatives of the child. Figure 8.1 shows the children’s ages. Only 16 per cent of children adopted in 2010 were aged under 2, 12 per cent were aged 2, 23 per cent were 3-4, 34 per cent were 5-9, 11 per cent were 10-14 and 4 per cent were aged 15 or over. Of the children aged under 2, 82 per cent were adopted by non-relatives. In contrast, only 11 per cent of the 66 children aged 10 or over were adopted by non-relatives.
Figure 8.1 Age at adoption, Scotland, 2010
More information about adoptions
More detailed information about Scotland’s adoptions can be found at:
http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/adoptions
Or in the adoptions and re-registrations section of the Vital Events Reference Tables 2010 at:
http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/vital-events-reference-tables/archive/2010/section-2-adoptions-and-re-registrations