National Islands Plan - Annual Report 2023

30th March 2024

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 requires that a report is presented to Parliament each year setting out the progress made towards delivery of the National Islands Plan. This report sets out progress made during the 2023 reporting year.

Population Levels
Strategic objective 1 - Address population decline and ensure a healthy, balanced population profile

Implementation Route Map 2023
We will continue to utilise and promote the Scottish Island Regions (2023) geography, a grouping of Scotland's islands into nine different island regions. This new geography is based on the Scottish Island Regions Framework (2020) initially developed by the James Hutton Institute (JHI) and used as the basis for the National Islands Plan Survey (2020). Grouping islands together into regions is one feasible way to provide aggregate statistics on the Scottish island population, overcoming the challenge that many of the islands are very sparsely populated. Using this new grouping will mean that National Records of Scotland will be able to produce Scottish Island population data every year. By continuing to promote this new data-zone based geography, it is hoped that other types of data such as house prices will also be available at the Island level.
Retaining and attracting young people is one of the key objectives of the Islands Growth Deal. Both the Scottish and UK Governments are each investing up to £50 million in the Deal. Full Deal Agreement for the Islands was signed on 20th January 2023, and the Deal will be delivered over the next 10 years.

The Scottish Government is also contributing £25 million to the Argyll and Bute Growth Deal, £135 to the Inverness and Highland City Region Deal and £103 million to the Ayrshire Growth Deal, which all include projects helping to drive sustainable and inclusive growth across Scotland's islands. The Argyll and Bute Deal consists of projects and programmes spanning sustainable tourism, digital, business innovation, housing, skills, aquaculture, low carbon and regeneration.

Commitment 1.1 Identify islands where population decline is becoming a critical issue in order to ensure that these islands have their needs addressed.

Read the full report HERE