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.
5 Sustainable Economic Development
Most island local authorities are estimated to have higher employment rates than the Scottish average.
With the exception of Highland and North Ayrshire, the island local authorities generally had a higher employment rate than the employment rate for Scotland. In 2023, Orkney Islands had the highest estimated employment rate of the island local authorities, with 87.5% of those aged 16-64 in work. Highland had the lowest estimated employment rate, with 71.5% of those aged 16-64 in work. Orkney Islands, Highland and North Ayrshire all experienced greater drops in employment between 2020 and 2021 than the Scottish average. However, between 2021 and 2022, Orkney Islands and North Ayrshire saw the greatest increase in employment.
Data from the Scottish Household Survey (2023) suggests that more islanders (58%) report managing well financially compared to those living in mainland Scotland (52%).