Death of our rural towns?
Future of small communities in doubt after big population shift
RURAL communities across Scotland are ‘under threat’, with many hit by a sharp decline in population over the past decade.
Remote areas and small towns have experienced the largest fall, figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) comparing mid-2020 to mid-2010 show.
Some of the worst-hit rural areas have seen their population plummet by as much as 80 per cent in only ten years. But bigger towns and cities have grown, with 71 per cent of Scots now living in urban regions.
Last night there was a warning that the Scottish Government’s Greens pact would accelerate rural population decline.
Scottish Tory rural affairs spokesman Rachael Hamilton said: ‘These figures do not come as a surprise. The SNP Government has completely failed to address issues in our rural communities during 14 years in office.
‘Ministers have continued to centralise services away from remote and rural areas, while
‘Ministers continue to centralise services’
being obsessed with the Central Belt. As we recover from the pandemic, it is crucial SNP ministers stand up for our rural communities and ensure incentives are in place for people to live and work in these areas.
‘However, the prospects for vital jobs being created and protected in our rural communities now faces a further threat due to the Greens being part of a coalition of chaos. They have always been completely dismissive of rural interests.’
Scotland has an ageing population and, over the past decade, rural and island areas have aged the most.
Meanwhile, Inverclyde, which includes Greenock and Gourock, had the highest percentage of its population (30 per cent) living in areas classed as the most deprived in Scotland.
East Renfrewshire had the highest percentage of its population (38 per cent) living in the least deprived.
Last night, NRS statistician Esther Roughsedge said: ‘The population of small geographical areas changes over time for many reasons, including births and deaths as well as migration, inwards and outwards.
‘Scotland’s population is continuing to age and grow at different rates. Remote areas, as well as the West of Scotland, experienced the highest rates of depopulation and these areas also saw the largest increases in median age.’
Statisticians divided Scotland into smaller data zones each comprising an average of about 800 people, then looked at the proportion of zones where the population was increasing and the proportion where it had fallen since 2010.
In Inverclyde, 82 per cent of zones saw decreasing population compared with 18 per cent where it had risen – the biggest slump in Scotland.
Other areas which had a decline in the majority of their zones include North Ayrshire, with the second-worst rate of decline, Argyll and Bute, and West Dunbartonshire. The biggest increase was in the City of Edinburgh, where the population rose in 73 per cent of zones and fell in 26 per cent, followed by Stirling and Glasgow City.
Meanwhile, the NRS data shows residents in Falkirk town centre and the Callendar Park area of the Stirlingshire town had a median age of 73, making them the neighbourhoods with the highest percentage of people aged over 65 in Scotland, at 79 per cent, followed by Blairgowrie West in Perthshire (57 per cent).
Some 62 per cent of data zones in Falkirk have seen a slump in population in the past decade.
The ‘youngest’ data zone, with a median age of 20, was Newington and Dalkeith Road in the City of Edinburgh, which contains a high density of student accommodation.
The percentage of data zones in which the median age of residents had increased varied from 52 per cent of the zones in Dundee City to 94 per cent of the zones in the Western Isles.
The figures take into account population changes up to June 30, 2020, which means only part of the year covered by the statistics was affected by the pandemic.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘These figures not only reflect that Scotland is facing long-term demographic challenges, but the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘We are committed to addressing rural and islands depopulation in particular, and that is one of the key actions of our National Islands Plan.’