Latest statistics on vital events

Recent provisional statistics from the Registrar General for Scotland have shown that:

• 14,772 births were registered in the first quarter of the year – 159 (1.1%) more than in the same period of 2011.
• The number of marriages increased by 4% 3,255, 124 more than during the first quarter of 2011.
• Civil partnerships had fallen to 83 (36 male and 47 female), 15 fewer than during the first quarter of 2011.

The Registrar General also produces an Annual Review of Demographic Trends. The latest review available is for 2010, which shows that there were 28,480 marriages in Scotland in 2010, 956 (3.5%) more than in 2009. Following a decline from over 40,000 marriages a year in the early 1970s, the annual total levelled out at around 30,000 in the mid-1990s, but fell each year from 2005 to 2009. The highest total recorded since 1993 was 32,154 in 2004 whilst the 2009 total was the lowest since Victorian times.

The percentage of people marrying who had been divorced rose from just under 6% in 1971, to over a quarter in 2001 (28% for grooms and 26% for brides). The majority of this shift reflects a reduction in the proportion of marriages where one of the partners had never been married. The percentage was around 25% in 2010 (25% for grooms and 24% for brides). The proportion of those marrying who were widowed (2% in 2010) has hardly changed since 2001.

The average age at marriage has risen for both males and females. For first marriages, the average age of grooms who were bachelors has risen from 30.5 in 2000 to 32.5 in 2010; the comparable figures for brides who were spinsters are 28.6 in 2000 and 30.7 in 2010.

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