"Scottish Population" or "Population of Scotland"
- Alistair McConnachie
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Alistair McConnachie says that when we seek solutions to a falling birth rate we must make a distinction between a rising "Scottish population" and a rising "population of Scotland". Pic: A supporter at A Force For Good's "Enough is Enough" rally outside the Scottish Parliament on Saturday 6 September 2025 has a simple message for the politicians!
We are always being told that "Scotland has a falling birth rate" and as a consequence, we need to import immigrants to keep the population up and rising.
There is so much wrong with this.
Firstly, why is a rising population necessary anyway? It's not a bad thing to have a stable, or slightly decreasing population, providing the borders are secure and the indigenous community is protected.
Let's be clear. We're not saying it's a good thing either. We're just saying that it's not an issue we should be particularly bothered about, providing everything else is working fine.
Secondly, the actual "population of Scotland" is increasing anyway! All the increase is coming from immigration. Scotland's population was estimated to be 5,545,500 on 30 June 2025 – the highest it has ever been. (1)
Thirdly, this brings us to the important matter of definitions!
GETTING DEFINITIONS RIGHT in the FIRST PLACE
Are we speaking about "Scotland" or "Scottish"?
Are we talking about increasing the number of people in Scotland or increasing the number of Scottish people, per se?
These are two different things.
Obviously, the political class currently running Scotland makes no distinction between the two. They find such distinctions to be "politically incorrect"; maybe even morally "wrong". Instead, they are only interested in increasing the overall number of "people in Scotland".
However, there is an obvious difference.
The "population of Scotland" is just the number of people living here.
The "Scottish population" is – or should be – defined as those indigenous Scottish people who can trace ancestry in Scotland for at least several generations. In that sense, it's about ethnicity.
How far back should we go in order that you can claim an ethnic Scottishness (as opposed to a civic or cultural element), either in full or in part? We would say, at least, prior to the Great Slaughter of WW1, although you can take this arbitrary point as far back as you like. (2)
FOURTHLY, IMPORTING MEN DOESN'T SOLVE "LOW BIRTH RATES"
It should be obvious! Think about it! Take the asylum-seeker crisis. Overwhelming, these are young men. How on earth is importing young men going to solve our low birth rate? It's not as if we're importing a similar number of young women.
All we're doing is disproportionately increasing the number of young men in society, and that can hardly be a good thing.
Why should the fixed-number of young Scottish men have to compete with endlessly-increasing numbers of similarly-aged foreign men for the same fixed-amount of Scottish women?
Nobody (except us) is pointing out that this doesn't make any social sense, but it's a fact.
Even the ready-made families which are being legally imported from abroad are not helping to address the matter of low-birth rates among the indigenous Scots. Such ready-made families from abroad are doing nothing to address the core issue of the lack of reproduction among the indigenous Scottish population.
FIFTHLY, SCOTLAND has a POPULATION VULNERABLE to FOREIGN REPLACEMENT
Scotland's population of around 5 and a half million can be easily and heavily impacted with immigration.
Take a look at some of these figures.
At the 2022 census, over half a million, 554,900, (10%) of the population in Scotland were born outside of the UK, and of them 352,342 were aged between 15 and 39. (3)
In 2022, there were 827,600 males between the ages of 15 and 39, and 849,600 females in Scotland, giving a total of 1,677,200 people in this age group. (4)
This means that, by 2022, over 1 in 5 people in Scotland between the ages of 15 and 39 were born outside the UK. (21% = 352,342/1,677,200 x 100)
The politicians may excuse their policies by saying that they are importing people "due to the low birth rates" but the numbers are now so great that all they are really doing is converting the country into a new country, made up of new people from abroad.
What good is the fact that the "population of Scotland" might be "increasing" if the population which is increasing is an overwhelmingly foreign population, who are effectively engaged in creating a new country for themselves?
At the end of the day, how many people can you import from abroad before Scotland actually becomes a new foreign country?
We don't want Scotland to be transformed into a completely different place!
Did the Native Americans in the USA console themselves with the fact that "at least the population is increasing"? Surely they experienced the movement of Europeans into their living spaces as a dramatic loss. Surely they had a right to object, just as we do today.
The lesson we can take from their experience – and from what we see happening around us – is that "land" doesn't belong to anyone by right. It belongs to those who stake a claim to it, and successfully defend it, or successfully take it.
SENSIBLE SOLUTIONS to a FALLING SCOTTISH BIRTH RATE
Instead of importing a long-term population of ready-made adults, the size of Paisley into Scotland each year (5), how about we make it more affordable for young Scots to start a family; how about we give support to couples trying to rear children; how about we give tax breaks to families with children – make babies "tax deductible" – the aim being to lower the cost of living so families can thrive.
A lower cost of living means more Scottish babies.
Moreover, we should seek to enhance the position of young mothers in society – perhaps through some kind of motherhood endowment.
There is also the vital matter of creating a protected living space – ensuring the circumstances where people can relax and have a sense that their nation is safe and secure and is not being internally disrupted in ways that they cannot control. Secure borders help to convey that sense of national comfort.
Such pro-natalist polices, combined with serious restrictions on immigration and "asylum" would ensure that the rate of population growth would be organic growth in the sense that it would be primarily derived from the long-term settled population of Scotland, and in a natural way.
This would mean that the economy, and our public services, would be able to gradually adjust and adapt to the natural increase in babies, who turn into children, who turn into adults, who gradually pass away – rather than being constantly subjected to the endless systemic shock of mass immigration and asylum.
So, we do not need mass immigration to address the falling birth rate.
There are other things we can do, and when we address the issue, we should always make the distinction between the two different matters of a rising "population of Scotland" and a rising "Scottish population".
REFERENCES
1. National Records of Scotland, "Mid-2025 population estimates", 14-7-26 at
nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/mid-2025-population-estimates
2. We give you our full definition in chapter 2 of "Protect our Country: Policies to Stop Mass Immigration".
3. Scotland's Census, "Scotland's Census 2022 - Demography and migration", 1-8-24. Numbers are found by clicking on the interactive diagram at Figure 7 at tinyurl.com/vnnt2wzs
4. Scotland's Census, "Scotland's Census 2022 - Rounded population estimates", 14-9-23. Numbers are found by clicking on the interactive diagram at Figure 3 at tinyurl.com/5cddn8ws
5. The number of long-term immigrants who came from outside the UK into Scotland in one year between June 2023 and June 2024 was 109,500. The latest figure for the number of long-term immigrants into Scotland from outside the UK for the one year between June 2024 to June 2025 is 57,600 (although this figure may be revised upwards).
Op Cit, National Records of Scotland, Figure 3.
We examine this matter, and propose solutions, in our classic book on the subject Protect our Country: Policies to Stop Mass Immigration available from Amazon.
For more articles on immigration see our Territorial Sovereignty: Article Index
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