The number of births in Scotland have fallen by 7.5%, new figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) have shown.
The latest statistics from the NRS present the figures on births, stillbirths, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths that were registered in Scotland from July 1, until September 30, 2023.
There were 11,897 births registered during this period which is also referred to as quarter three.
The figures showed that birth rates were 7.5% lower than the five year average for this time period which is 12,862.
This year’s stats will be compared against the five year average, which in standard practice would be from 2018-2022.
However, due to the pandemic affecting aspects of the NRS’s data collection, 2020 will not be considered.
This year’s five year comparison has been made against 2017-2019 plus 2021-2022 data due to the pandemic, which caused delays in birth registrations.
The new data comes after the number of deaths outnumbered the number of births in Scotland from October to December last year.
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