Births, Deaths and other Vital Events figures for 2014

15th March 2015

Provisional figures for births, deaths, adoptions, marriages and civil partnerships registered during 2014 are published today by the National Records of Scotland.

The statistics show that the number of marriages in 2014 rose by 1,500 compared to 2013 but levels are still historically low. Of a total of 29,070 marriages registered in 2014, 367 involved same sex couples following the introduction of same sex marriage on 16th December 2014.

The provisional figures also show that:

Of the 367 same sex marriages registered in 2014, 173 involved male couples and 194 female couples. 359 of these marriages were conversions of civil partnerships.

There were 436 civil partnerships (193 male and 243 female), 94 fewer than during 2013.

56,725 births were registered in the year - 711 (1.3 per cent) more than in 2013.

54,239 deaths were registered in Scotland in 2014 – 461 (0.8 per cent) fewer than in 2013. This is the fourth lowest number of deaths recorded in over 150 years. Only 2009, 2010 and 2011 had fewer deaths.

Deaths from cancer fell by 0.3 per cent to 15,803, deaths from coronary heart disease fell by 5.9 per cent to 6,842, and there were 4,125 deaths from stroke (a drop of 7.2 per cent).

NRS also published today lists of all the first forenames that were given to babies whose births were registered in Scotland in 2014, together with a full list of babies' first names for each year back to 1974, and some information about how the top names have changed over the years.

Notes

The full publication, including figures for NHS Boards and local authority areas, is available from the National Records of Scotland website via: http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/births-deaths-and-other-vital-events-preliminary-annual-figures

In recent years, the annual number of deaths has been below 55,000, compared to levels of around 60,000 to 65,000 from the mid-1940s to the mid-1990s, and larger numbers before then.

All the babies’ first forenames for 2014 are available via http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/names/babies-first-names/babies-first-names-2014/list-of-detailed-tables :

Table 4 lists the names in alphabetical order, and Table 5 lists them in rank order.

A full list of babies’ first names for each year back to 1974, and some information about how the top names have changed over the years, can be found via http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/names/babies-first-names . Please note that these lists are provided only in rank order.