National Records of Scotland (2024)

FAQs

What do the national records of Scotland do? ›

National Records of Scotland (NRS) is a Non-Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. Our purpose is to collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland's people and history and make it available to inform current and future generations.

On the ScotlandsPeople website you can search indexes to registers of births, deaths and marriages; census returns; wills and testaments (including soldiers' wills), valuation rolls, prison registers, Highland and Island Emigration Society records and Coats of Arms; and download digital copies of the records.

Not Resident in Scotland – To Whom it May Concern Letter

National Records of Scotland (NRS), Combined Registration Services Team can provide a 'To Whom It May Concern' letter stating that a search of the marriage indexes in Scotland has been made and no traces of a marriage involving you has been found.

Key Findings. In 2019-2021 healthy life expectancy at birth for females was 61.1 years and for males was 60.4 years. Healthy life expectancy at birth fell for both males and females over the latest year. Healthy life expectancy has been decreasing since 2015-2017 for males and since 2014-2016 for females.

For original documents such as birth, death and marriage and census records you should contact the National Records of Scotland. You will also find sources such as wills, trial papers and some estate and church records there.

Once registered, you can search our indexes without charge – you only pay to view and save images of records and to order certificates.

The NRS Library

The collections are fully catalogued but the catalogues are currently only accessible to personal visitors. The ScotlandsPeople Centre provides access to library records that will assist genealogists with their research.

NRS Strategic Objectives and Goals are: Vision: To preserve the past, record the present and inform the future. Mission: Increase our reach and impact and be recognised as a trusted, expert and professional organisation. Ethos: We put people at the heart of what we do and deliver in accordance with our values.

What information does the National Archives hold? ›

The National Archives is home to millions of historical documents, known as records, which were created and collected by UK central government departments and major courts of law. For example, we have records from the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Central Criminal Court.

The biggest public health challenge facing Scotland is the stall in life expectancy. Life expectancy has stalled across all socio-economic groups and in our poorest areas it has actually decreased.

Life expectancy (LE)

For the full report on the latest estimates, please visit the Life expectancy page on the NRS website. Life expectancy in Scotland was 76.5 years for males and 80.7 years for females in 2020-2022, these figures are provisional and will be updated following publication of 2022 Census populations.

Life expectancy at older ages

In 2020-2022, life expectancy at age 65 was 17.3 years for males and 19.6 years for females. This is a decrease of five weeks for females and almost six weeks for males since 2019-2021.

The census provides detailed information about Scotland's population, covering topics such as: type of accommodation. household relationships. age, sex and health.

The National Monument, a commanding neoclassical structure on Calton Hill, stands as a tribute to the fallen Scottish soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars. The plan was to make a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, with each stone being exactly the same size as the originals in Greece.