Scotland's births, deaths and marriages in numbers

The National Records of Scotland has released preliminary annual figures for births, deaths and other vital events in Scotland in 2014.

There were 56,725 birth registered last year, up 711 (or 1.3%) on 2013.

The number of deaths registered (54,239) was the fourth lowest number in 150 years. Only 2009, 2010 and 2011 had fewer deaths.

Marriage levels are still historically low but the number rose by 1,500 in 2014.

Of a total of 29,070 marriages registered, 367 involved same-sex couples following the introduction of same-sex marriage on 16 December.

Most of the same-sex marriages were conversions of civil partnerships as the law allowing new same-sex marriages only came in on the last day of 2014.

Same-sex marriages were fairly evenly split between male and female - 173 and 194.

There were 863 pairs of twins and 11 sets of triplets born in Scotland last year.

The figures show that the rate for stillbirths was the lowest ever recorded in Scotland at 4 per 1,000.

The infant mortality rate (3.6 per 1,000 live births) has increased slightly compared to 2013. However, long-term annual trends show that the infant mortality rate has decreased by two-thirds over the past 30 years. In 1984 it was 10.3 per 1,000 births.

Cancer (15,803) and disease of the circulatory systems such as heart disease and stroke (15,020) were by far the biggest causes of death.

The figures showed that 1,634 died in accidents. This included 223 in transport accidents, 716 in falls and 483 who were killed by poisoning.