The error in Table 2 of Appendix 1

11 June 2010

We regret that there are several minor errors in the figures in Table 2, Appendix 1 of Scotland's Population 2008 - The Registrar General's Annual Review of Demographic Trends. An initial draft version of this table had been prepared using the preliminary figures for 2008 that were published in "Births, Marriages and Deaths - Preliminary Annual Figures" in March 2009. Due to an oversight, most of these figures were not updated in July 2009, after the Vital Events statistics for 2008 were finalised. As a result:

• the birth, stillbirth and death rates which appeared in the table were as published in March 2009. They were produced using the preliminary Vital Events statistics for 2008 and the population estimates for mid-2007 (which were the latest population estimates available in March 2009). They should have been (but were not) recalculated later, using the final Vital Events statistics and the population estimates for mid-2008. In consequence, some rates differed slightly from the correct values. The errors were all small (generally, just 0.1 per 1,000 population; there were a few errors of 0.2 per 1,000 population). NB: the standardised rates in Table 2 of Appendix 1 were all correct: they were calculated correctly, using the final Vital Events statistics and the population estimates for mid-2008, because standardised rates are not among the preliminary figures that are published in March.
• the Vital Events figures in the table were also as published in March 2009, and so did not take account of any minor revisions that were made when the Vital Events statistics for 2008 were finalised. In consequence, two of the numbers differed by one from the final figures that were published in the Vital Events Reference Tables.

A corrected version of Table 2 appears below, in updated HTML and PDF copies of Appendix 1. We are changing the way in which we produce this table, in order to reduce the likelihood of such an error occurring again. We apologise for any problems or inconvenience caused by our error.

Appendix 1 - Summary Tables

(HTML PDF)