Births, deaths and other vital events - second quarter 2015

Provisional figures for births, deaths and other vital events registered during the second quarter of 2015 are published today by the National Records of Scotland.

The statistics show that 13,897 deaths were registered in the second quarter of the year – 1,051 (8.2 per cent) more than in the same period of 2014. This was the highest number of second quarter deaths since 2006 although levels remain substantially lower than those seen in the 1980s.

The provisional figures also show that:

• 13,718 births were registered in Scotland in quarter two – 303 (2.2 per cent) fewer than in the same period of 2014. The total number of births for the second quarter fell to a low of around 12,600 in 2002. It then rose to around 14,800 in 2008 before falling back to the current level of around 13,700 in 2015. 
• There were 8,187 marriages in total, 155 fewer than in the second quarter of 2014 (a fall of 1.9 per cent). Of these, 427 were same-sex marriages. 
• There were eight civil partnerships (5 male and 3 female), 121 fewer than during the second quarter of 2014. 

Compared with the same period in 2014, the number of deaths from coronary heart disease rose by 4.6 per cent to 1,739, deaths from stroke increased by 6.9 per cent to 1,040, and there were 3,929 deaths from cancer (an increase of 1.7 per cent). .

The full publication Births, deaths and other vital events - quarterly figures is available on this website.