This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Births, Deaths and Marriages in 2005
22/09/2005
The number of births in Scotland has reached the highest level since 1999, the Registrar General announced today as he issued his second Vital Events Quarterly Return for 2005.
Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven said:
"We should not make too much of quarterly figures like these. However, it is encouraging to note that in the second quarter of this year the number of births (13,544) was 1.5 per cent higher than in the second quarter of 2004, and that taking the past six months as a whole, births have been at a higher level than we have seen for six years.
"Deaths showed the usual seasonal decline, although at 13,667 they were 0.7 per cent above the level of one year earlier.
"For Scotland as a whole deaths slightly exceeded births, by 0.1 per cent, but births outnumbered deaths in seven out of the 15 Health board areas.
"Marriages in the second quarter of 2005 (8,630) were slightly down on the second quarter of 2004."
General Register Office for Scotland website: www.gro-scotland.gov.uk