More people are living on Scottish islands than a decade ago, new census figures show.
There were 103,702 people living on the islands in March 2011, up 4% from 99,739 ten years earlier.
The islands population made up 2% of the national population in 2011 but the growth has not been uniform, with some islands seeing a large increase while others, including Arran, Bute and Islay, experienced a drop in population.
The figures are from the latest publication of the 2011 census from the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
The 2011 level is not a record high, with the population on the islands thought to have been larger at the start of the 20th century.
The most populated island area in 2011 was Lewis and Harris with 21,031 residents, an increase of about 5.5% since 2001.
In total, 50 islands saw an increase in population, with the largest increase in the Orkney Islands Council, which grew by 11%, 2,104 people, accounting for more than half of the increase across all the Scottish islands.
Three islands which were uninhabited in 2001 had residents in 2011 but the population of 43 islands fell over the decade.
Registrar General Tim Ellis said: "The population of the Scottish islands has increased over the last 10 years, however much of this increase is a result of the sizable population increases in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
"Some of the other larger islands such as Bute, Arran and Islay have seen population decrease over the decade."
The 2011 census recorded Scotland's population at 5.2 million.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article