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Population

Scotland's Census provides a detailed picture of who lived in Scotland on 27 March 2011.

Highest ever population

Scotland's population count on census day 2011 was 5,295,403.

That's Scotland's highest ever. The population rose by 233,392 people between 2001 and 2011.

Age

People aged 65 and over outnumbered under 15s for the first time.

People aged 65 and over made up 16.8% of the population. 16.1% of the population were children aged under 15. 

The number of people aged 65 and over had increased by 85,000 (10.6%) since 2001.

Men and women

Women outnumbered men by about 150,000.

There were 2,728,000 women in Scotland and 2,567,400 men.

Women outnumbered men in all council areas except for the Shetland Islands.

Marital status

The proportion of married people decreased.

45.2% of people aged 16 and over were married: a decrease of 5 percentage points since 2001.

35.4% of people aged 16 and over were single: either never married, or never registered a same-sex civil partnership.

7,000 people (0.2% of adults) were in registered same-sex civil partnerships.

The remaining 19.2% of people aged 16 and over were either:

  • divorced or had been in a dissolved civil partnership
  • widowed or had a civil partner who has died

Explore Scotland's Census

There is so much more you can discover about Scotland's population through the census. The data from Scotland's Census is easy to use and free for everyone.

Area overviews

View and compare simple census results for postcodes, towns, council areas, or all of Scotland.

Search the data

Get detailed data tables for a wide range of topics and geographies with our data searching tool.

Analytical reports

Read detailed reports that make use of census data to explore various topics.