Births, deaths and other vital events - preliminary 2012

16th March 2013

Provisional figures for births, deaths, adoptions, marriages and civil partnerships registered during 2012 are published today by the National Records of Scotland.

The statistics show that marriages in Scotland have risen for the third consecutive year and are now at their highest figure since 2005.

Tim Ellis, the new Chief Executive of the National Records of Scotland said:“In historic terms, the number of marriages in 2012 was relatively low. However, the total number of marriages has been rising since 2009 and in 2012 reached 30,534, an increase of 4.8 per cent on the 2011 figure."

The provisional figures also show that:

There were 574 civil partnerships (257 male and 317 female), 20 more than during 2011.
58,027 births were registered in the year – 563 (1.0 per cent) fewer than in 2011.

54,937 deaths were registered in Scotland in 2012 – 1,276 (2.4 per cent) more than in 2011. However, despite that rise, it is the fourth lowest number of deaths recorded in over 150 years.

Deaths from cancer rose by 2.3 per cent to 15,808, deaths from coronary heart disease fell by 2.0 per cent to 7,481, and there were 4,474 deaths from stroke (a drop of 2.6 per cent).

Tim Ellis commented :"Although deaths rose in 2012, they are not high in historical terms. From the mid-1940s to the mid-1990s, there tended to be between 60,000 and 65,000 deaths per year, and larger numbers before then - far more than in recent years, when the annual totals have been below 55,000.

"There is usually some year-to-year fluctuation in the number of deaths and in 2011, Scotland recorded its lowest ever annual total (53,661), so an increase in the number registered in 2012 was not unexpected."