Vital Events Reference Tables 2001

Section 1: Summary

Tabular conventions

Where a range of years is listed in a time series table, e.g. 1951-55, the data presented will be an average for this period.

Throughout the tables 'year' means 'calendar year' except where otherwise defined. By convention, many of the time series presented start at census years e.g. 1971.

Rates given as '0' or '0.0' indicate that the actual rate is less than 0.5 and 0.05 respectively. A dash (-) in any cell indicates that there were no events. Dots (...) in any cell indicate that the information is not available, or, in the case of a rate, that the denominator may not be available.

In tabulations using ages and age-groups, or years, the sign < followed by a figure means up to but not including the figure stated, e.g. < 4 weeks means 'under 4 weeks'. Where two ages appear in the same column, for example 20-24, this means age 20 to 24, both ages inclusive.

The following abbreviations are used:

Administrative areas are council areas and health board areas. Note that from 1 January 1998 the council area formerly known as Western Isles became known by its Gaelic name, Eilean Siar.

Marital status of parents

The following terms are used throughout the reference tables:

Date of registration and place of occurrence

All the data presented on births, stillbirths, marriages and deaths relate to the date of registration of the event and not to the date of occurrence; for example, a birth on 31 December 2000 which was registered on 5 January 2001 would be included in the 2001 figures. Births and stillbirths are usually registered within the statutory period of 21 days. Similarly, marriages are usually registered within 3 days and deaths within 8 days. Births, stillbirths, and deaths have been allocated to the area of usual residence if it is in Scotland, otherwise to the area of occurrence. Marriage figures relate to the area of occurrence.

Social class

From 2001 the National Statistics socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) will be used for all official statistics and surveys, including the information on births and deaths collected by the Registrar General as part of the civil registration system. It will replace Social Class based on occupation (SC) and socio-economic groups (SEG). NS-SEC is based on the revised standard occupation classification (SOC2000) which will also be introduced from 2001.

Age standardisation

A straight comparison of crude rates between areas may present a misleading picture because of differences in the sex and age structure of the respective populations. The technique of standardisation has been used in certain tables to remedy this. In general, standardisation involves a comparison of the actual number of events occurring in an area with the aggregate number expected if the age/sex specific rates in the standard population were applied to the age/sex groups of the observed population. The results have been expressed either as standardised rates (Tables 1.3 and 1.4) or as standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) where the standard rate (for Scotland or the United Kingdom) equals 100 (Tables 1.5 and 1.7).

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