A demographic crisis?

Population crisis? What population crisis? According to provisional figures published by the Registrar General yesterday, more babies were born in Scotland last year than in any year since 1998. In addition, there were fewer deaths than in 2005. In demographic terms, the outlook appears brighter than in late 2003 when, in the wake of figures showing an excess of deaths over births and a patchy record on inward migration, Duncan Macniven, the Registrar General, estimated that Scotland's population would fall below five million within six years. 2009 is only two years away, but the demographic time bomb has, fortunately, been given a longer fuse. His latest prediction for a reduction in the symbolic five million figure is 2036.