Civil servant numbers in proportion to population of Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

“I was wondering if you could give me the total amount of civil servants in Scotland in relation to people living in Scotland? As in x amount of civil servants for x amount of people living here.

Now according to the media (it may be wrong) Scotland has more civil servants per head of population than England and Wales could you confirm this. Simple yes or no would be good as stats are interpreted differently (as I'm sure you know). Now if this is the case and Scotland has a deficit of approx £1.2b (again media can be wrong heaven forbid) do you think cutting the civil service might be a good place to start to save money.

I look forward to your answer on all my points. No links no stats just honest simple answers please”

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in the format you asked for.

There were 55,500 civil servants (covering both the reserved and devolved governments) in Scotland as at December 2024 from the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Employment in Scotland publication, and around 5,490,100 people living in Scotland in 2023 from the latest mid-year population estimates published by National Records of Scotland. This means there are around 101 civil servants per 10,000 people living in Scotland.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold comparable information on the number of civil servants in England and Wales.

The Scottish Government does not have a £1.2 billion deficit and always presents a balanced budget to Parliament. Under the current devolution settlement, the Scottish Government cannot overspend its budget, and have always adopted a fiscally sustainable approach to its public finances.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.