News Story

The number of babies being born in Scotland has reached another record low, figures have shown.

Excluding the pandemic, birth rates are at their lowest point since at least 1974, figures by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show.

Just 10,616 births were provisionally recorded between April and June this year the lowest since the second quarter of 2020, when Covid restrictions delayed registrations.

The figure is 4.5% lower than the second-quarter average of 11,116.

It continues a long-running trend in Scotland, with 2025 becoming the third consecutive year for record-low birth rates.

The latest figures also show there were 14,542 deaths registered between April and June 1.8% lower than the expected number of 14,803.

The total number of deaths registered has now been lower than expected for 12 consecutive quarters.

However, the NRS said the number of deaths in the latest period was closer to the expected number than in recent quarters.

Deaths were lower than expected in all broad age groups but those among men aged under 65 were 2.9% higher than expected, with 1,575 deaths compared with an expected 1,530.

The leading causes of death were cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, as well as coronary heart disease.

NRS head of vital events statistics Phillipa Haxton said: “Birth registrations in Scotland have generally been falling over the longer term. The latest birth rate was 7.7 per 1,000 people, compared with 10.4 a decade earlier.

“The overall number of deaths was below expected levels for the 12th quarter in a row. However, looking at age and sex together shows a different pattern for men aged under 65, whose deaths were higher than expected in the latest quarter.”

Meanwhile, there were 7,909 marriages recorded in the latest period, 3.9% higher than the quarter two average of 7,613.

Of these, 308 (3.9%) were same-sex marriages, slightly more than the quarter two average of 280 (3.7% of all marriages).

Some 320 civil partnerships were registered in quarter two. Of these, 279 (87%) involved mixed-sex couples. There were 41 same-sex civil partnerships, compared with a quarter two average of 29.