Scottish Islands Data Overview (2025)
The Scottish Islands Data Dashboard has been updated following a review of available data. This report summarises the findings. It highlights changes between data available in 2025 and data first collated in 2023 and gives an overview of longer term trends in Scotland's Islands.
Footnotes
1 Some data is only available at Local Authority level and the three of the six local authorities which contain islands also include substantial mainland areas. These data should be interpreted with caution.
2 Residential property sales in Scottish Island regions, RoS (June 2025) (excel table C8)
3 with associated excel data tables 31-33
4 Data for specific islands or island groupings with small populations cannot always be provided if the sample size is too small.
5 Details on this geography are published in the National Islands Plan Survey Final Report
6 The rebased small area population estimates up to 2021 will publish Winter 2025/2026, followed by the 2023 and 2024 small area population estimates figures and the estimates for the Scottish Island Regions and the dashboard up-date in Spring 2026.
7 Gross Value Added (GVA) - estimates of regional gross value added (GVA), which is the value generated by any unit engaged in the production of goods and services.
8 Whilst total output fell in Orkney Islands Council this was due to lower Onshore Wind output and is likely due to there being less wind in subsequent years.
9 Sparsely Populated Areas are a classification of data Zones which (in 2011) were estimated to contain less than 10,000 people living within 30 minutes’ travel, by roads and ferries, from their centre. For more information see: Population projections and an introduction to economic-demographic foresight for Scotland’s sparsely populated areas (2018-43)
11 Base on data for sub-regions of the sparsely populated areas.
13 ROS House Price Statistics: June 2025
14 Argyll islands and Highland islands both had a median house price of £240,000.
15 Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023 Key Findings - gov.scot
16 The Scottish House Condition Survey combines three years of data to produce the local authority estimates, the most granular level data is produced, and a similar process would be needed for islands-level data as well.
Unfortunately, due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, it was not possible to resume the 2020 Scottish House Condition Survey, and the 2021 Scottish House Condition Survey was undertaken using an external+ approach. Due to this change in approach for the 2021 SHCS, the results are not directly comparable with the National Statistics from previous waves of the survey.
The lack of Scottish House Condition Survey data for 2020 and the enforced changes for 2021 means that islands-level data cannot be produced for two reasons. Firstly, there is no Scottish House Condition Survey data for 2020 so we cannot produce a three-year average for 2020 to 2022. Secondly, the data from the 2021 external+ Scottish House Condition Survey is not directly comparable with that for earlier years due to the methodological differences. It would not be appropriate to combine it with the data for 2019 (or earlier) to produce a multi-year average.
Due to this we will not be able to return to the usual approach for producing local authority estimates and Islands-level data from the Scottish House Condition Survey until the 2024 wave of the Scottish House Condition Survey has completed.
17 Defined as offering at least 10Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload.
18 With the exception of a brief dip in coverage in the Orkney Islands in 2023.
19 Scottish National Islands Plan Survey (2020): results explorer
20 Health and Care Experience Survey - gov.scot
21 Life Expectancy in Scotland 2021-2023 - National Records of Scotland (NRS)
22 Scottish Health Survey (data only available 2016-2019)
23 Suicide mortality rate is the number of suicide deaths in a year per 100,000 population, often referred to as the crude suicide rate (not age-adjusted).
24 Environment Statistics from the Scottish Household Survey 2023
25 Of the 22 secondary schools on islands 12 cater for S1 to S6. 10 are shown above. Data is not available for 2 schools on Na h-Eileann Siar.
26 Figures quoted refer to school leavers rather than all pupils.