Migration: key data sources

Census 2001

The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) maintain the SCROL (Scottish Census Results On-Line) web site which was created to encourage the use of, and widen access to, the results of the 2001 Census in Scotland.

The Census in Scotland asks people to give their usual address one year before the Census. This provides information about migrants within Scotland and to Scotland from the rest of the UK and from the rest of the world. The Census returns for England, Wales and Northern Ireland identify migrants from Scotland to the rest of the UK. But the UK Censuses cannot provide any information about migrants from Scotland to places outwith the UK.

In terms of migration statistics, the SCROL site has a range of tables covering inflows and outflows of persons and households to and from and within Scotland in the year before the census. The tables are available at a number of geographical levels from health boards to census output areas. The GROS provides a set of CDs with a more detailed and extensive set of data tables and will also undertake ad hoc analyses on request. In addition to this the GROS have recently produced a paper summarising migration trends based on the 2001 Census.


General Register Office for Scotland (GROS)

Migration estimates are published by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) each year in their annual reports - Registrar General's Annual Review of Demographic Trends. Chapter 2 of the 2003 report focused specifically on migration. Previous years' reports are also available. There are many other related demographic statistics available in their Online Data Library and a Customer Services team help with ad hoc queries.


The Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS)

This is a large-scale linkage study which will be a resource in the future for migration analysis. The study is based on a 5.5% sample of the Scottish population (around 274,000 individuals) for whom administrative records are linked. The study data are held anonymously and access is governed by strict confidentiality rules. Information is gathered from the 1991 and 2001 Censuses and from vital events data (births, deaths, marriages etc.) and National Health Service Central Register (migration in or out of Scotland). It is also possible to link information from the cancer registry and hospital admissions episodes.

The work to establish the SLS has been ongoing since 2000 and it is hoped that data will be made available for analysis early in 2006. A support service will help researchers access these data.  The web site (link provided above) provides information on how the study data can be used and accessed.