Wider Socio-Economic Profile
The Wider Socio-Economic section of the SRUC report Rural and Agricultural Development: Maximising the potential in the islands of Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides can be downloaded as a stand alone document from the link below. This section draws on many of the datasets being analysed by the researchers in the NISRIE and ReRIC projects within the Scottish Government's Environment, natural resources and agriculture Strategic Research Programme 2022-27. A selection of the points raised in this section of the report includes:
The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 aims to ensure a sustained focus across Government and the public sector to meet the needs of island communities, now and in the future. Most of the provisions of the Act came into force in 2018, including the development of a National Islands Plan with 13 wide ranging Strategic Objectives covering a variety of issues designed to improve the quality of life for island communities, including: population decline; promoting sustainable economic development; environmental wellbeing; health and wellbeing; community empowerment; improving transport services and digital connectivity; reducing fuel poverty; and enhancing biosecurity. - The nature of largely sparse island populations and associated population dynamics has important implications for sustainable economic growth and the provision of needed services and infrastructure, and therefore must be considered when devising national policy. Many sparsely populated island areas are often heavily reliant on agriculture and crofting, such as: Uig and Great Bernera (1.5 people per km2) on Lewis; Pollachar and Eriskay on South Uist (1.5 per km2); Northmavine (3.6 per km2), Fetlar and Unst (4 people per km2) in Shetland , Hoy, Walls and Flotta in Orkney (3.2 per km2).
- There are significant variation in population dynamic within the island groupings. For example, parts of Barra (excluding Castlebay) saw population rise by 23% between 2000 and 2021, compared to 16% decline in Pollachar and Eriskay on South Uist.
- Population profiles are also changing that have implications for service provisioning. The number of young childeren has declined - with c.1k fewer under five year olds in the Outer Hebrides in 2021 compared to 1983 (a drop of 49%). Similarly there were 279 fewer (a drop of 22%) in Orkney and 747 fewer (a drop of 41%) in Shetland over the same period. In contrast, between 1983 and 2021 there were c.1.3k 70 year olds and over (+20%) in the Outer Hebrides, with c.1.9k more (+85%) in Orkney and c.1.3k more (+56%) in Shetland.
- The high proportion of micro businesses in each island underlines their critical role in the local economy. Small and micro businesses are often the backbone of communities, contributing to employment, local economic development, and fostering entrepreneurship, as well as delivering vital services. Despite this, the importance of larger SME businesses in the island economies cannot be dismissed – noting the large amount of private sector employment and turnover generated from a small number of businesses.
- The total estimated workforce for Orkney was c.13.6k, 13.8k for the Outer Hebrides and 14.0k for Shetland in 2023. The ONS Annual Population Survey estimated 42% public sector employment in Orkney, 41% in the Outer Hebrides and 49% in Shetland.
- Part time employees were a much more prominent feature in the Outer Hebrides (34%) and Shetland (30%) compared to Orkney (24%) and Scotland (24%).
- Despite, seemingly high coverage of key broadband services many households and businesses remain reliant on fixed broadband coverage for internet provisioning. In Orkney 17% of premises could not receive download speeds of 10Mbit/s, with 16% in Shetland, but only 5% in Outer Hebrides. 2 Mbit/s is defined as broadband, and there are still 2-3% of matched premises in these island groups that do not have access to fixed broadband.
The download link to this section of the report is found below, or you can return to the main report page here.
