Category: statistics

Each year since 1855, National Records of Scotland has published the Registrar General’s Annual Review, providing an annual overview of the latest demographic trends.

NRS statistician Maria Kaye summarises what we know about life expectancy in Scotland, as found in “Scotland’s Population 2016” – the 162^nd Annual Review.

The most recent life expectancy figures published by the National Records of Scotland tell us that a baby girl born in Scotland around 2014 could expect to live for 81.1 years while a baby boy could expect to live until he was 77.1 years old.

Over the past three decades, life expectancy has steadily improved – increasing by 8.0 years for males and by 5.8 years for females since around 1981. The gap between male and female life expectancy has also decreased over the period, from a gap of 6.2 years for those born around 1981 to a gap of 4.1 years for those born around 2014.

Over the past few years, we have seen the rate of increase in life expectancy slow and the most recent estimates of life expectancy at birth remained unchanged. This was true both in Scotland and for the UK as a whole and is likely to have been affected by an increased number of deaths in 2015.

Over the next 25 years, life expectancy is projected to rise further, reaching 82.3 years for males and 85.0 years for females by 2039.

Scotland has the lowest life expectancy of all of the UK constituent countries and is lower than the UK as a whole which has a life expectancy of 82.8 years for females and 79.1 years for males.

Within Scotland, there is a difference of nearly five years in life expectancy for females between the council area with the highest (East Dunbartonshire) and the lowest (West Dunbartonshire) life expectancy. For males, there is a gap of seven years between the highest (East Dunbartonshire) and lowest (Glasgow city).

 

More information about life expectancy statistics including estimates for Scottish Councils and NHS Boards are available on our website. Further commentary on our latest statistics can be found in the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends for 2016, which was published on the 2^nd of August.

Maria Kaye

Assistant Statistician

National Records of Scotland

Each year since 1855, National Records of Scotland has published the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends, an overview of all the statistics we have gathered.

NRS statistician Amelia Brereton summarises our findings on Scotland’s households, as found in Scotland’s Population 2016 – the 162^nd Annual Review.

 

Scotland’s population is growing and ageing. This has affected both the total number of households in Scotland and the most common types of household.

Older people are more likely to live on their own, or with just one other person. This means that as the number of older people in the population has gone up, so has the number of these smaller household types.

According to our latest estimates from the Scottish Household Survey, one-person households are now the most common type of household in Scotland. We estimate that nearly 900,000 people in Scotland are living alone, many of whom will be older people.

We also project how many households of different types there might be in the future, based on past trends.

We have projected that the number of people aged 65 or over living alone will increase by 45 per cent in 2014 to 484,800 people by 2039. In the oldest age groups – 85 and over – we have projected that the number of people living alone will more than double between 2014 and 2039.

It is important that we can project how many households there might be in future; where they will be; how many people will live in them and how old they will be.

This helps with planning for how many homes of different types will be needed. Knowing how many older households there might be in different areas is also important for planning services, such as community care.

You can find out more in our report, Scotland’s Population 2016. This year, the report contains an invited chapter on household composition and housing provision in Scotland written by Prof Elspeth Graham, Dr Francesca Fiori and Dr Kim McKee.

They include an overview of the statistics and research on this topic, new analysis of the housing patterns of young adults and older adults, and analysis of interviews with young adults aged 18-35.

Amelia Brereton

Assistant Statistician

National Records of Scotland

In January 2017, NRS adopted new software for recording mortality statistics. This software – IRIS – will help us to improve data relating to deaths from certain diseases and disorders.  It will also help to create statistics that allow for more accurate comparison with other countries, particularly with England and Wales.

When a death is registered, it’s common for a number of diseases or conditions to be recorded on the death certificate. The IRIS software translates causes of death into a code that is recognised under the World Health Organisation’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Continue reading “Improving Mortality Statistics” →