Scots population hits new high but growth slows

There are now 5.33 million people living in Scotland, but the number of new-born babies fell by more than 2000 last year, according to the National Records of Scotland.

The population is still continuing to grow because of high immigration with a net intake of 10,000 - although this rate of increase is also down.

Polish people are now the biggest nationality group living in Scotland, with almost 60,000 based here. This is twice as many as Indians which is the next biggest group.

A growing number of Scots are also living alone with 2.4 million individual households in Scotland, which is an increase of around 171,000 over the past 10 years.

There were 27,547 marriages in 2013, the figures show, with Scots now waiting to get married.

The average age at which people marry for the first time has increased by around two years since 2003 to 33 for men and 31.2 years for women.