Births, deaths & other vital events - second quarter 2016

Provisional figures for vital events registered in the second quarter 2016, published today by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The statistics show that 13,455 deaths were registered in the second quarter of the year – 448 (3.2 per cent) fewer than in the same period of 2015. Over the last decade the number of deaths in the second quarter (Q2) has fluctuated, ranging between 12,770 (in 2009) and 13,903 (in 2015). The 2016 Q2 figure is slightly above the average Q2 figure in the last ten years (13,309).

Deaths from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, respiratory system disease and cancer have all decreased and are now similar to 2014 levels following large increases in 2015. The number of deaths from diseases of the nervous system (which include Alzheimer’s) has seen a further increase of four per cent in 2016 to reach 798 in the second quarter .

The provisional figures also show that:

• 13,930 births were registered in Scotland in quarter two – 213 (1.6 per cent) more than in the same period of 2015 and similar to the level in 2013. 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 13,900 in 2013.
• There were 8,052 marriages in total, 135 fewer than the figure for the second quarter of 2015 (a fall of 1.6 per cent). This is the lowest number of marriages in the second quarter since 2009.
• There were 282 same-sex marriages between 1 April and 30 June 2016, 144 (33.8 per cent) fewer than the total of 426 in the same period of 2015 (which was the second full quarter since the provisions on same sex marriage came into force at the end of 2014). 49 (17 per cent) of the same sex marriages in the second quarter were changes from civil partnerships. 
• There were 16 civil partnerships (nine male and seven female), three more than during the second quarter of 2015.
• Compared with the same period in 2015, the number of deaths from coronary heart disease fell by 7.6 per cent to 1,644, deaths from cerebrovascular disease fell by 7.9 per cent to 966, deaths from respiratory system disease fell by 9.0 per cent to 1,587 and there were 3,841 deaths from cancer (a decrease of 2.7 per cent).  

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