Scotland
Demography
The population of Scotland in the 2001 Census was 5,062,011.
This rose to 5,295,400, the highest ever, according to the first results of the 2011 Census.
Although Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, it is not the largest city. With a population of just over 584,000, this title falls to Glasgow.
The Greater Glasgow urban area, with a population of almost 1.2 million, is home to nearly a quarter of Scotland's population.
The “Central Belt” is where most of the main towns and cities are located. Glasgow is to the west, while Edinburgh and Dundee lie on the east coast, with Perth lying 20 miles upstream on the River Tay from Dundee.
The Highlands are sparsely populated.
In general, only the more accessible and larger islands retain human populations. Currently, fewer than 90 remain inhabited.
The Southern Uplands are essentially rural in nature and dominated by agriculture and forestry.
Immigration since World War II has given Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee small South Asian communities. In 2011, there were an estimated 49,000 ethnically Pakistani people living in Scotland, making them the largest non-White ethnic group. Since the Enlargement of the European Union more people from Central and Eastern Europe have moved to Scotland.
Scotland has three officially recognised languages: English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic.
Almost all Scots speak Scottish English, and in 1996, the General Register Office for Scotland estimated that between 17 and 33% of the population could speak Scots. Others speak Highland English. Gaelic is mostly spoken in the Western Isles, where a large proportion of people still speak it; however, nationally its use is confined to just 1% of the population. The number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland dropped from 250,000 – 7% of the population – in 1881 to 60,000 in 2008.
There are many more people with Scottish ancestry living abroad than the total population of Scotland. In the 2000 Census, 9.2 million
The population of Scotland in the 2001 Census was 5,062,011.
This rose to 5,295,400, the highest ever, according to the first results of the 2011 Census.
Although Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, it is not the largest city. With a population of just over 584,000, this title falls to Glasgow.
The Greater Glasgow urban area, with a population of almost 1.2 million, is home to nearly a quarter of Scotland's population.
The “Central Belt” is where most of the main towns and cities are located. Glasgow is to the west, while Edinburgh and Dundee lie on the east coast, with Perth lying 20 miles upstream on the River Tay from Dundee.
The Highlands are sparsely populated.
In general, only the more accessible and larger islands retain human populations. Currently, fewer than 90 remain inhabited.
The Southern Uplands are essentially rural in nature and dominated by agriculture and forestry.
Immigration since World War II has given Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee small South Asian communities. In 2011, there were an estimated 49,000 ethnically Pakistani people living in Scotland, making them the largest non-White ethnic group. Since the Enlargement of the European Union more people from Central and Eastern Europe have moved to Scotland.
Scotland has three officially recognised languages: English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic.
Almost all Scots speak Scottish English, and in 1996, the General Register Office for Scotland estimated that between 17 and 33% of the population could speak Scots. Others speak Highland English. Gaelic is mostly spoken in the Western Isles, where a large proportion of people still speak it; however, nationally its use is confined to just 1% of the population. The number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland dropped from 250,000 – 7% of the population – in 1881 to 60,000 in 2008.
There are many more people with Scottish ancestry living abroad than the total population of Scotland. In the 2000 Census, 9.2 million