Provisional figures for births, deaths, adoptions, marriages and civil partnerships registered during 2012 have been published 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 (30,534) since 2005.
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%) fewer than in 2011.
- 54,937 deaths were registered in Scotland in 2012 – 1,276 (2.4%) 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% to 15,808, deaths from coronary heart disease fell by 2.0% to 7,481, and there were 4,474 deaths from stroke (a drop of 2.6%).