Scottish castles and historic buildings became the venue for 1,000 religious and 500 civil marriage ceremonies in 2004.
Just under 10,000 weddings took place in Scotland in 2004 where neither bride nor groom was a Scottish resident. Around half were at Gretna, which had 5,500 weddings last year, not bad for a town with a population of 3,000. As well as the tourists flocking to the country, around 50,000 people a year move to live in Scotland from the rest of the UK (96 per cent from England). Nearly half are in their late teens to mid-20s, usually leaving the parental home to study or take up jobs north of the border.
The falling marriage rate in Scotland, down by 21 per cent between 1976 and 2001, is following a UK trend, but is slower than for the rest of the country where it has fallen by 29 per cent in this time. Compared with England and Wales, Scotland has the lowest proportion of non-married people cohabiting between the age of 20 and 59. Coupled with falling marriage rates, the result is a decreasing birth rate. Like many parts of the UK and Europe, Scottish women are having fewer children and having them later. Births among women aged 20 to 24 have fallen by two thirds in the last 40 years and for those aged 25 to 29 by 56 per cent. Women aged 30 to 34 are now having more babies than 25- to 29-year olds, but even so they are having fewer children than Scottish women had in the 1950s and 60s. By 2028 it’s estimated the population will fall to 4.8 million (from its peak of 5.2m in 1974). For a population to replace itself women need to have around 2.1 babies. Women today are, on average, having only 1.6 babies. The General Register Office for Scotland’s annual report states "While the increasing fertility rates of those aged over 30 may lead to some catching up, it seems highly unlikely that this will increase the average completed family size to the levels attained as recently as the 1960s."
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