Births, Deaths and Other Vital Events - Quarterly Figures

Fourth Quarter 2017

This release presents provisional figures for vital events which were registered in Scotland in the period from 1 October 2017 to 31 December 2017, inclusive. The tables and chart (available below) provide statistics of births, stillbirths, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths, including:

• quarterly figures for Scotland for each of the past ten years;
• the totals for each Local Authority and NHS Board area for the latest quarter; and
• more detailed analyses of the numbers of deaths (for example cross-classified by sex, cause and NHS Board area) for the latest quarter.

Main Points

• The statistics show 12,821 births, 15,198 deaths and 5,975 marriages were registered between October and December.
• At 12,821, the number of births registered was 172 (1.3 per cent) fewer than in the same period of 2016 and the lowest quarter four total since 2000. The total number of quarter four births fell to a low of  12,785 in 2000. It then rose to around 14,500 in 2008 before falling in more recent years.
• At 15,198, the number of deaths registered was 626 (4.3 per cent) more than in the same period of 2016, and the highest quarter four total since 2003. Between 2004 and 2016 the number of deaths in the fourth quarter was generally between 13,500 and 14,500.
• Compared with the fourth quarter of 2016:
• The number of deaths from coronary heart disease rose by 1.3 per cent to 1,754;
• Deaths from cerebrovascular disease fell by 5.0 per cent to 1,018;
• There were 4,242 deaths from cancer (an increase of 5.9 per cent);
• Deaths from respiratory system diseases fell by 7.2 per cent  to 1,808;
• There was an increase of 15.8 per cent in the number of deaths from Alzheimer’s Disease (673);
• The number of deaths from dementia rose by 12.3 per cent to 1,131 (although respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s and dementia deaths are affected by the change in cause of death coding software –  refer to this paper for more details.)
• Over the longer term, deaths from coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease have decreased considerably whilst the number of deaths from cancer and respiratory disease has risen slightly.  There has been a relatively large increase in the number of deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease with such deaths now accounting for more than 10 per cent of all deaths compared to 5 per cent a decade ago.
• The provisional figures also show there were 5,975 marriages in total, 391 fewer than during the fourth quarter of 2016 (a fall of 6.1 per cent).
• There were 228 same-sex marriages, a rise of 20 (9.6 per cent) compared with the same period of 2016. Thirty-one (13.6 per cent) of the same sex marriages registered in the fourth quarter were changes from civil partnerships.
• There were 23 civil partnerships (14 male and 9 female), six more than during the fourth quarter of 2016.

Statistical Service in Scotland

 Tables and Chart

The tables and chart below have been made available as Excel spreadsheets and can be viewed in Comma Separated Value (CSV) or Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF).

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Commentary

More detailed commentary on the final Vital Events statistics for calendar years as a whole (including some comparisons of the figures for different years, for parts of Scotland and for some other countries) can be found in the following areas of our website:

• the relevant chapters of Scotland's Population - the Registrar General's Annual Review of Demographic Trends

Note
This is a quarterly publication. The dates of future publications will be announced in our Future Publications page.

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