2022

Just in time for Christmas, analysts at the National Records of Scotland have found Mary was the top name for girls and women in Scotland’s Census 1921.

Tallying up the top names from the 4.8 million people recorded in Scotland on 19 June 1921 shows almost 300,000 women and girls sharing the name with Mary, mother of Jesus. 

The top name for men and boys was John with almost 350,000 people recorded with the name.  The census includes everyone from the youngest babies to the oldest people in the country at the time. 

Individuals records from the census are kept confidential for 100 years but this information can now be searched by historians and those uncovering their family tree on scotlandspeople.gov.uk.  

Gerry Donnelly, ScotlandsPeople lead NRS, said:

“Our family history website ScotlandsPeople now has all the records from the 1921 census available online to search so people can find their grandparents, great-grandparents or even earlier generations and see where they were living and what work they had. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the lives of a generation that did so much to build the world we live in today.

“One of the things which has changed markedly is the range of names. By comparing the top 10 first names from the 1921 census with babies born in 2021 there are a few similarities but only for male names. This reflects the trend in recent decades towards much more variation in the names we see.”

Compared with modern names for baby girls there is little in common. None of the names which are in the top 10 for the 1921 census feature in the most popular list for baby girls born in 2021. Isabella which was 6th most popular in 1921 was 32nd for babies born last year with 121 registrations of girls with that name.

It’s a slightly different story with names for men and boys. If we compare the first names of all males in the 1921 census with the names of baby boys born in 2021 James and Alexander are still in the top 10 and the most popular name for boys is ‘Jack’ – historically a pet name for John. Charlie and Archie are also high in the 2021 list, derivatives of Charles and Archibald which were common in 1921. Thomas also remains a popular name. It came in at 19 last year and 6 in the 1921 census.

Gerry added: “Our counts suggest that that more than half of the people recorded in Scotland’s Census 1921 had one of the top ten names for males and females. Finding out what names were in your family can be surprising but it’s likely you will find some Marys and Johns.”

Notes to editors

1. These are not official statistics and there is isn’t a publication with the full lists available. 
2. In the 1921 census we saw lots of abbreviations and use of variations in names such as Alex for Alexander. We have counted them separately in the same way that we do for the babies’ names. It is unlikely to have changed the order of the top 10 names. 
3. A report on 100 years of baby names done in 2000 can be found here
4. Our official report on Babies’ first names for 2021 can be found here 
5. The 1921 census indexes are available to search on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk along with a wide range of other records including earlier census and historic births, deaths and marriages

Top twenty names lists

As at 11 December 2022, 16,213 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate, according to statistics published today by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

In the latest week, 40 deaths were registered that mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, one fewer than in the previous week. 

There were five deaths in City of Edinburgh, and three deaths in each of Dundee City, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow City, Highland, and North Lanarkshire. In total, 21 council areas (out of 32) had at least one death involving COVID-19 last week.
31 were in hospitals, six were in care homes, and three were at home or a non-institutional setting.  21 deaths were female and 19 were male. 28 were aged 75 or older, 10 were aged 65 to 74 and 2 were under 65.

Our monthly analysis shows that the age standardised death rate for deaths involving COVID-19 was similar in November 2022 (40 per 100,000) compared to October 2022 (41 per 100,000). Throughout the pandemic, the highest rate of COVID-related deaths was 585 per 100,000 people in April 2020. 

Of the 16,180 deaths involving COVID-19 between March 2020 and November 2022, 93% (15,119) had at least one pre-existing condition, with the most common being dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 

Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said:

“The latest figures show that last week there were 40 deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This is one fewer than in the previous week.

“People living in the most deprived areas were 2.4 times as likely to die with COVID-19 as those in the least deprived areas. The size of this gap slowly widened over the period of the pandemic but has narrowed since January 2022, when the gap was 2.5.

“The number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland in this week was 1,287, which is 100, or 8%, more than the five year average.”

There have been nine deaths in Scotland in which the underlying cause of death was due to the adverse effects of vaccination against COVID-19, and four further deaths where an adverse effect was mentioned on the death certificate. This is no change from the figure reported last month. By 30 November 2022, statistics from Public Health Scotland state that 4.4 million people had been given at least one vaccine dose.

The publication Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland is available on the NRS website.

Background

We update the weekly COVID-19 death information in our data and charts spreadsheet and publish a full report and news release on a monthly basis. 

NRS figures include deaths where ‘suspected’ or ‘probable’ COVID-19 appears on the death certificate. 

Data are provisional and subject to change in future weekly publications. The 2022 data will be finalised in summer 2023.

Media enquiries should be directed to:
Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected] 

Further information about the statistics is available from:
NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected] 

People in the most deprived communities are spending more than one third of their lives in poor health, according to new figures released by National Records of Scotland. 

Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) is a population average based on the self-reported experiences of a sample of people. It’s an indicator of the health of the whole population.

In 2019-2021 HLE at birth for females was 61.1 years and for males was 60.4 years. It has fallen for both over the latest year. This is in line with a downward trend that started in 2014-2016 for females and 2015-2017 for males. 

Healthy life expectancy for females was almost 25 years lower for the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived. The difference was even greater for males at 26 years. 

Maria, Kaye-Bardgett, NRS statistician said: 

“It’s important to recognise the difference between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy but also how they impact on each other. 

“These figures show that people living in the most deprived communities are more likely to report their health poor - so they have a shorter healthy life expectancy.

“We already know from life expectancy figures that people in the most deprived communities die at younger ages. Using both sets of figures we can say that males and females in the most deprived communities spend more than a third of their lives in poor health. In comparison people in the least deprived areas can expect to live around 15% of their lives in poor health and will enjoy longer lives.”

HLE has been higher for females than for males since the start of the time series for this data. However the gap between males and females has become smaller over time. 

Background 

The report, Healthy Life Expectancy 2019-2021, is available on the NRS website alongside data tables. 

The personal response data comes from the Annual Population Survey run by ONS across the UK. 

The most recent years for which UK comparisons are available are 2018-2020. 

Media enquiries should be directed to:

Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected]  

Further information about the statistics is available from:

NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected]  

The number of people who died in quarter 3 of this year was just over 10% higher than the average for the third quarter, according to a new report from National Records of Scotland. 

There were 14,925 deaths between 1 July and 30 September 2022. Compared to the quarter 3 average, the number of deaths from cancer rose by 1.5% to 4,091, and coronary heart disease rose by 8.2% to 1,643. The number of deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease increased by 3.6% to 1,414, and deaths from respiratory diseases increased by 3.1% to 1,350. There were 890 deaths from cerebrovascular disease, an increase of 1.9%.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) was the underlying cause of 397 deaths during quarter 3,  and there were no deaths where the underlying cause was adverse effects of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The number of stillbirths (48) was down by 8.4% on the quarter 3 average and the number of infant deaths (34) fell by 21.3%.

Julie Ramsay, Vital Events Statistician at National Records of Scotland, said: 

“In quarter 3 we have seen an increase of just over 10% in the number of deaths compared with the average for this time of year. There doesn’t appear to be a single factor behind this increase and analysis of the causes of death show an increase across a wide range of illnesses and other causes.

“The report also shows 10,658 couples married in Scotland, nearly 2% more than in this period last year.”

Meanwhile there were 11,692 births, down more than 12% on the five year average for July to September. This continues the period of negative natural change, where the number of deaths outnumbers the number of births, which began in quarter one of 2015. 

There were also 185 civil partnerships, 156 of which were for mixed sex couples who have been able to choose this option since June last year. There were 29 same-sex civil partnerships, an increase of 6 on the five year average.

Background

Comparisons are usually made by comparing the current year to the average of the previous five years.  For 2022, standard practice would be to compare against the 2017-2021 average.  However, as the 2020 figures were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – marriages were much lower than usual, deaths were higher, and registration of births was delayed – comparing 2022 figure to the 2017-2021 average would not give a true reflection of how the latest quarter’s figures compare to the average.  Comparisons have therefore been made against the average of the five years 2016-2019 plus 2021.

The report and associated data are available on our website.

Media enquiries should be directed to:

Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected] 

Further information about the statistics is available from:

NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected] 

The release of the 1921 census provides a glimpse into the home and working lives of Scotland’s people 100 years ago, National Records of Scotland said today.

Family-history website ScotlandsPeople has been updated to include over 9000 volumes of enumeration district books, comprising more than 200,000 images of 4.8 million individual records. 

Scanned images of the original handwritten census books detail each address from the finest hotels to cramped tenements, and from ships at sea to people in tents. 

Recorded on the night of 19 June 1921, against the accommodation, everyone present is listed with details including their relationships to each other, their age, their occupation and for the first time information on orphan-hood, dependent children and workplace.

The 1921 census reveals further details of the private lives of people living through social and economic turmoil. These are people struggling to emerge from the long shadow of World War I and the Great Influenza Pandemic. 

Jocelyn Grant, Archivist, at National Records of Scotland said:

“The release of the 1921 census allows us to trace our ancestors and notable individuals in Scotland’s history at a particular point in time. Recorded on the night of 19 June 1921 we can explore where a person was staying, what their home was like, who they were with, what their occupation was and who they worked for. This information makes the census a fantastic resource for researchers and family historians. 

“1921 is an interesting time in history. A change in the law meant women could now pursue careers in professions such as law, medicine and the civil service. It is exciting to see Madge Easton Anderson – the first woman in Britain to qualify as a solicitor – recorded as a ‘law agent’ in the census. Margaret Kidd, is recorded as ‘Law Student’. Kidd would go on to become the first woman to be called to the Scottish bar, Britain’s first female King’s Counsel and the first female Sheriff Principal.

“However, this isn’t the roaring 20s we’re used to hearing about. Huge numbers live in poor, overcrowded conditions. Unemployment is high and there is widespread industrial unrest. The census shows soldiers stationed at collieries across central Scotland. A group of 156 soldiers are even using part of a school in Fife as a barracks. 

“But there is fun too. St Andrews is poised to host the 1921 Golf Open and the town’s hotels are crammed with the world’s best players and their media entourage.”

You can open an account on ScotlandsPeople and search the indexes free of charge. There are fees for viewing images from the census itself. 

*Edited 1 Dec to amend date of the 1921 census to 19 June 1921

An estimated 250 people died while experiencing homelessness in Scotland in 2021, according to new figures published by National Records of Scotland.  This is at a similar level to last year. 

Midlothian, Glasgow City, and the City of Edinburgh had the highest rates of homeless deaths within Scotland, whilst Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross, and Stirling council areas recorded none. 

81% of those who died were male and 60% were aged under 45. 

Head of Vital Events, Julie Ramsay, said:

“Drug-misuse deaths of people experiencing homelessness fell in the past year for the first time, from 151 to 127, but it was still the cause of over half of all deaths for people experiencing homelessness in 2021. 

“As in previous years, the death rate of males is much higher than that of females. 81% of deaths in 2021 were male and 19% were female. The age profile of females was younger, with 72% of those who died being under the age of 45.”

There were two deaths where the underlying cause was COVID-19.

While these figures are similar to last year’s, the estimated number of people dying while experiencing homelessness is higher than in 2017, the first year that NRS collected this data. 

Similar statistics exist for the other nations of the UK but they are not considered to be comparable. An article was published by the Government Statistical Service (GSS) yesterday about the comparability of these statistics across the United Kingdom.

Background

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) is responsible for producing statistics on Scotland’s population.

The full report and an infographic for Homeless Deaths 2021 is available on our website.

These are experimental figures. Establishing an accurate number is hard because not all people who die while experiencing homelessness have their lack of permanent home recorded on their death registration record. The estimated number of deaths is established by examining death registration records to find people who were either in temporary accommodation or were sleeping rough before they died and adding to this a conservative estimated figure based on sampling. The probability is the true figure is higher. The methodology is explained further in the report on our website.  Estimates of homeless deaths in other parts of the UK are not comparable with those for Scotland – this article (jointly published by statistics producers across the UK) explains why.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff. General information about population statistics can be accessed in the About our Statistics section of the NRS website.

Media enquiries should be directed to:

Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected] 

Further information about the statistics is available from:

NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected] 
 

As at 13 November 2022, 16,052 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate, according to statistics published today by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

In the latest week, 47 deaths were registered that mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, one more than in the previous week. 

There were eight deaths in Fife, seven deaths  in Aberdeen City, and five deaths in South Lanarkshire. In total, 19 council areas (out of 32) had at least one death involving COVID-19 last week.

43 were in hospitals, three were in care homes, and one was at home or in a non-institutional setting.  21 deaths were female and 26 were male. 36 were aged 75 or older, nine were aged 65 to 74, and two were under 65.

Our monthly analysis shows that the age-standardised rate of COVID-related deaths was slightly higher in October 2022 (41 per 100,000) compared to September 2022 (37 per 100,000). Throughout the pandemic, the highest rate of COVID-related deaths was 585 per 100,000 people in April 2020. 

Of the 15,995 deaths involving COVID-19 between March 2020 and October 2022, 93% (14,942) had at least one pre-existing condition, with the most common being dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 

Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said:

“The latest figures show that last week there were 47 deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. This is one more than in the previous week.
“People living in the most deprived areas were 2.4 times as likely to die with COVID-19 as those in the least deprived areas. The size of this gap slowly widened over the period of the pandemic but has narrowed since January 2022, when the gap was 2.5.

“The number of deaths from all causes registered in Scotland in this week was 1,219, which is 52, or 4%, more than the five year average.”

There have been nine deaths in Scotland in which the underlying cause of death was due to the adverse effects of vaccination against COVID-19, and four further deaths where an adverse effect was mentioned on the death certificate. This is no change from the figure reported last month. By 31 October 2022, statistics from Public Health Scotland state that 4.4 million people had been given at least one vaccine dose.

The publication Deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland is available on the NRS website.

Background

We update the weekly COVID-19 death information in our data and charts spreadsheet and publish a full report and news release on a monthly basis. 

NRS figures include deaths where ‘suspected’ or ‘probable’ COVID-19 appears on the death certificate. 

Data are provisional and subject to change in future weekly publications. The 2022 data will be finalised in summer 2023.

Media enquiries should be directed to:
Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected] 

Further information about the statistics is available from:
NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected] 
 

More than a quarter of all deaths in Scotland in 2021 were avoidable, according to analysis by National Records of Scotland. 

28% of the 63,587 deaths registered last year were considered preventable or treatable, up from 27% in 2020.  The rate of avoidable deaths in 2021 was 4% higher than the previous year. Half of the increase in the latest year is attributable to COVID-19 deaths which are considered preventable. 

Cancers and circulatory diseases were the most common causes of avoidable mortality in 2021, accounting for 28% and 25% of all avoidable deaths respectively.

Alcohol and drug-related avoidable mortality rates increased for the ninth year in a row. 

Julie Ramsay, Head of Vital Events Statistics, said: 

“Avoidable mortality doesn’t impact everyone equally. The rate of avoidable deaths in the most deprived areas was over four times the rate of those in the least deprived areas.

After adjusting for age, avoidable mortality rates among males were 1.6 times as high as those among females.” 

The publication ‘Avoidable Mortality in Scotland, 2021’ is available on the NRS website.

Background

The full publication ‘Avoidable Mortality in Scotland, 2021’ and summary infographic are available on the NRS website. The report details information on the number of deaths that were registered in Scotland in 2021 which were classified as avoidable.

Information is broken down by age-group, sex, cause of death, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile, NHS Board and Local Authority area.

‘Avoidable mortality’ are deaths which are considered either preventable or treatable through public health or healthcare interventions. The term ‘avoidable mortality’ is based on an international definition by the OECD/Eurostat and looks only at deaths under the age of 75.

When discussing avoidable deaths, the following terms are used:

• Preventable mortality – deaths that can be mainly avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions
• Treatable mortality – deaths that can be mainly avoided through timely and effective healthcare interventions, including secondary prevention and treatment
• Avoidable mortality – deaths defined as either preventable or treatable

National Records of Scotland (NRS) produces statistics on Scotland’s population, including the numbers of births, deaths, marriages and other vital events. General information about NRS’s statistics can be found in the About our Statistics section of its website.

Media enquiries should be directed to:

Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected] 

Further information about the statistics is available from:

NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected] 

This exercise has now closed. Please do not submit an application now as it will not be considered.

We have received an exceptionally high volume of applications, for the donations of the limited number of chromebooks and mobile phones, to consider which will require a longer than anticipated time period for us to evaluate. We will provide responses as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience.

22,055 deaths were registered in Scotland in the four months of winter 2021/22, a slight fall from the previous winter but still high in relation to recent years, according to statistics published today by National Records of Scotland.

The seasonal increase in mortality during winter was 1,320. This is calculated by comparing the number of deaths during the four months of winter with the average number of deaths for the four month periods preceding and following winter.

The number of deaths between August and November last year was relatively high and as a result the seasonal increase in winter 2021/22 is the second lowest recorded in the last 70 years. 

The causes of death with the largest seasonal increases last winter were dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (250 additional deaths), cerebrovascular disease (180), and coronary (ischaemic) heart disease, other circulatory system diseases and chronic lower respiratory disease (150 each). Coronavirus (COVID-19) was the underlying cause of 60 of the additional deaths. Very few deaths were directly due to cold weather, for example hypothermia.

The seasonal increase in mortality in winter is generally lower in Scotland than in the other UK countries. . In the latest year for which comparable figures are available (2020/21) the seasonal increase in Scotland was 23% - lower than England (37%) and Wales (32%) but slightly higher than in Northern Ireland (21%).

Julie Ramsay, Head of Vital Events Statistics at NRS, said:

“The seasonal increase in mortality can change substantially from winter to winter, but the long-term trend has clearly been downward. In the 1950s and 60s there was an average seasonal increase of over 5,200 deaths in winter, whereas over the most recent decade it has averaged around 2,600.

“Older age groups are consistently the most affected by increased mortality in winter. For people aged 85 and over, there were 9% more deaths than the months before and after winter, compared to 5% more winter deaths in the under 65 population.”
The full ‘Winter Mortality’ publication is available from the NRS website.  It shows the seasonal increase in mortality recorded each winter in Scotland, broken down by age group, sex, cause of death, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile, NHS Board, and Local Authority area.  

Background
The seasonal increase in mortality in the winter represents the number of additional deaths in winter. It is defined as the difference between the number of deaths in the four month winter period (December to March and the average number of deaths in the two four month periods which precede winter (August to November) and follow winter (April to July).  It is also sometimes referred to as ‘excess winter deaths’ or ‘excess winter mortality’.

To account for differences in population size, seasonal increases for different areas are better compared using the Increased Winter Mortality Index (IWMI).  This is defined as the number of additional winter deaths divided by the average number of deaths in a four month non-winter period, expressed as a percentage. 

Media enquiries should be directed to:
Donna Green
NRS Communications
Tel: 07775-027-380
Email: [email protected]     

Further information about the statistics is available from:
NRS Customer Services
Email: [email protected]