Scottish Highland area has 'fewer people than Lapland' as depopulation crisis deepens

Parts of the Highlands are facing an “existential crisis” after they reported their lowest ever population levels with fewer people now found in the area than in Lapland, a major new report has found.

The report, which focuses on the North West Highlands - from Caithness and Sutherland to the Coigach peninsula - has set out the “tipping point” facing the area given the scale of depopulation and the “vicious cycle” of the loss of residents pushed away by lack of services and jobs, which makes others unable to relocate there.

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The areas covered in the analysis span the world-famous North Coast 500 route and, while the report does not directly link depopulation to the tourist trail, it is” extremely likely” that the volume of second and emptyhomes through the area has impacted average house prices.

The report has called for a fundamental rethink on how depopulation is tackled at both a local and national level and the need for a funding regime more in line with that afforded to the islands.

Meanwhile, a legion of volunteers, charities and trusts “exhaust” themselves by plugging gaps in services, from childcare, transport, social care, health as the provision of housing.

The Coigach Peninsula in Wester Ross. Local development trusts are leading on the building of new homes to help stem depopulation. PIC: Coigach Community Development Trust. | Coigach Community Development Trust

The long-term additional pressures in the pipeline are reported, given population data and forecasts. Critically, the number of children in the Coigach and North West Sutherland area has fallen by 47 per cent in the last 20 years, with it predicted that those over 65 will make up the majority of the population by 2045.

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The report has been produced by NorthWest2045, a vast network of charities, development groups and individuals in the area and funded by the Scottish Government, with 2025 analysis from BiGGAR Economics underpinning the research.

BiGGAR found the area was “locked in a spiral of social and economic decline so serious and so far advanced that it is not an exaggeration to describe it as an existential crisis.”

The analysis added: “Unless something changes radically in the next few years, the long-term prospects for human communities in the area seem bleak.”

In just 20 years, the population of Coigach and North West Sutherland has declined to a historic low of just 3,225 - with an 8.8% drop recorded since 2001.

The population is spread across over 2,000km2 of remote highland and coastal terrain, or 1.6 people per square kilometre — a lower density than Lapland, the report found.

Depopulation in the North West was both a cause and a consequence of long term decline across most all economic, social and cultural indicators, it added.

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Joseph Peach of NW2045 - the author of the report on depopulation in the North West Highlands. | Orla Stevens

The crisis is now so acute given the impact of falling populations on school rolls, transport, health and social care - and now so difficult to reverse, it said.

Of seven primary schools in the analysis area, school rolls have on average fallen 30 per cent since 2009. Pupil numbers at Durness have fallen 91 % , with rolls down 52 % at Achiltibuie and 38% at Lochinver over the period.

Kinlochbervie High School, built for 182 students, now serves just 27.8 pupils.

The area of the North West Highlands covered in the report. PIC: Boyd Alexander. | Boyd Alexander

In 2023, the area’s only residential care home facility, Calah Sona in Talmine, closed due to unsustainable staffing levels.

Following the closure of the local day care service in Tongue, the North Coast Connection, a local charity, set up a community health and well-being hub at the Kyle Centre - one of dozens of charities locally who are plugging gaps in services.

Meanwhile, a new North Sutherland Health and Social Care Hub, a partnership between Highland Council, NHS Highland and Wildland Limited - the company owned by Scotland largest owner and richest man Anders Holch Povlsen - is taking shape.

Anders Holch Povlsen, Scotland's richest man and largest landowner, who is funding the building of a new health and residential care centre near Tongue to help meet demand for services. PIC: Getty. | Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Ima

Wildland has funded the new building for a residential care facility, a GP surgery and an integrated care team, but progress is “extremely slow” given lack of public funds to operate it.

The report also found that face-to-face mental health services for young people in Sutherland were virtually “non existent” and in north Sutherland, there were no dental services at all.

“This has resulted in many people not visiting a dentist for 10 to15years,” the report said.

The lack of gynaecological and maternity services in Caithness and Sutherland were of particular concern given that around 14,000 women now have to travel up to four hours to Inverness for routine care, emergency and acute cases

Drawing on recent research by the Scottish Human Rights Commission, it added that women felt "unsafe, terrified by the journey due to night-time travel, the possibility of giving birth en route, adverse weather conditions, and the presence of deer on the road".

“As a result, some women are choosing not to have more children or are moving out of the area to avoid giving birth at Raigmore," the report added.

Joseph Peach, author of the report and NorthWest2045 coordinator, said: “The findings couldn’t be clearer. Depopulation in the North West isn’t just something that might happen — it’s already happening, and it’s having a real impact on everyday life here, as well as our future.”

He said depopulation was not a “single-issue” challenge and required a “whole-system response”.

The report was critical of current national policy efforts, particularly the idea that local areas can drive their own recovery in isolation.

Policy has failed to integrate population considerations into broader strategies — on housing, childcare, land use, or economic development, it said.

“What’s missing is not just money — though investment is needed — but policy coherence: a joined-up framework where national government works alongside local communities, rather than leaving them to fix national-scale problems with local-scale resources,” Mr Peach said.

Ewen McLachlan, development officer with Assynt Development Trust, the anchor organisation of the Northwest2045 group said: “Senior government policy makers and purse holders now have to decide whether they wish to support community developments that can create thriving, sustainable smart communities or would they rather abandon us to the fate of becoming cosplaying Highlanders whose role in life is to smile and wave at the passing traffic on the North Coast 500 route?

“Failure to take action will leave the North Highlands a beautiful landscape bereft of people, except for the affable, well off retired and their live-in carers.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Depopulation Action Plan sets out our strategic approach aimed at supporting communities facing population decline. In line with the evidence base, it acknowledges that there are no quick fixes to these challenges, and as every place is affected differently, there is no one solution that will work for every area.

“Through the plan, the Highland Council has received £60,000 in both 2024/25 and 2025/26 through our Addressing Depopulation Fund to trial place-based interventions which respond to local priorities. This includes ongoing work to understand if childcare interventions can be delivered to retain families within the area. In addition, we are continuing to part-fund a local Community Settlement Officer role in northwest Sutherland, which has a focus on delivering local housing solutions.”

“As called for in this report, we are committed to working closely with regional, local and community partners to ensure that we collectively deliver a sustainable solution to these challenges.”