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This dictionary is intended to help you understand some of the statistical terms and phrases used on our website. If there is any phrases are not explained in this guide, which you would like to see included or if you have any suggestions to improve the guide please contact statistics customer services using our contact form.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Quarterly Return of Vital Events
This is a quarterly vital events publication, released in June, September, December and March, giving provisional figures for quarters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of a particular year.
Change in population size during a period divided by the population at the beginning of the period. This is often expressed as the annual rate of growth or the average annual rate of population growth (over a five-year period, for example), usually expressed as a percentage.
The General Register Office for Scotland is headed by the Registrar General for Scotland, Duncan Macniven.
Generally refers to a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, which equates to the average number of children each woman is required to have for the population to replace itself in the long-term. The rate reflects the sex ratio at birth (roughly 105 males born for every 100 females) and mortality of females between birth and childbearing.
A person who usually lives in an area. This is a statistical, not a legal, definition generally based on a person's self-identified usual address. The residents of Scotland are people who live permanently in Scotland (including people temporarily overseas).
In Census statistics, a resident is a person who self-identifies on the Census individual form that they usually live at a particular address.
Sample of Anonymised Records (SARS)
This is a sample of records taken from the Census. This sample is used by researchers who wish to conduct analyses from the Census data.
The SIMD is the Scottish Government’s official tool for identifying small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland and is relevant to policies aimed at tackling the causes and effects of multiple deprivation. The SIMD provides a relative ranking 6,505 small areas (data zones) across Scotland from the most deprived (ranked one) to the least deprived in Scotland (ranked 6.505).
For analysis purposes, the SIMD rankings are often split into groups. For example, to allow information on the 15% most deprived areas to be compared to similar information on the other areas.
The Scotland's Census Results OnLine (SCROL) website is the main source of tabulated data from the 2001 Census. Information is available for all published tables at several different geographies
A group of high density postcodes containing a minimum of 500 residents, which are enclosed by low density postcodes or water.
The statistics from the 1991 Census that show the migration flows between different council areas, of people who moved address in the year before the Census.
These statistics from the 1991 Census show the flows between different council areas, of people travelling to work.
Standardisation is one type of weighted average. When comparing two or more populations it is essential to ensure that the populations are as comparable as possible.
Frequently, the populations being compared willl have very different age structures, for example, and need to be standardised against a reference population.
Standardisation takes into account differences in the distribution of some centrally important characteristic (such as age) within the populations under consideration, addressing the question: if these different populations were to have the same age structure (or that of the whole population or some other reference group), how would the rates then compare?
This is important in comparing different areas with one another. Examples include the comparison of birth and death rates in different local authority areas using the standardised birth rates and standardised death rates.
A stillbirth is the birth of a dead infant after the 24th week of pregnancy.
A hypothetical cohort of people used to derive a measure of data for a specified period as though they represent life time experiences of actual cohorts.
For example, the total fertility rate represents the average total children born per woman for a synthetic cohort of women with age-specific birth rates of the reference period.
A time series is a set of observations, results, or other data obtained over a period of time, usually at regular intervals. GROS produces time series data for several topics and these can be found on our Time Series Datasets page.
The average number of live births that a woman would have during her life if she were to experience the age-specific fertility rates of a given period (usually a year).
The implied long-term change in a series. In general, the trend gives a better prognosis of change because it removes the distraction of short-term turbulence in a series.
The Scottish Government (SG) uses urban-rural classification to ensure that rural and remote communities have their distinct needs reflected in new policies and initiatives. The SG has been classifying areas using a 6-fold urban-rural classification system with the following categories:
Events related to births, deaths, divorces, marriages and civil partnerships and divorces.
Page last updated: 25 May 2009
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