In 1901 there were 150 persons to each square mile, and 4.3 acres (excluding inland waters, tidal rivers and foreshore) to each person. The distribution of population is illustrated in the preceding table, which gives the names and areas of the counties and other particulars.

In the northern, north-western and southern divisions the population declined during the decade, the fifteen counties thus affected being, in the order of decrease, beginning with the shire in which it was smallest, Inverness, Banff, Argyll, Kirkcudbright, Shetland, Sutherland, Dumfries, Ross and Cromarty, Clackmannan, Berwick, Orkney, Roxburgh, Caithness, Wigtown and Selkirk. It will thus be seen that the far north and far south alike decreased in population, the decline being largely due to physical conditions, though it need not be supposed that the limit of population was reached in either area. The most sparsely inhabited county was Sutherland, the most densely Lanark. The counties in which there was the largest increase in the decennial period—with Linlithgow first, followed by Lanark, Stirling, Renfrew, Dumbarton and thirteen others—principally belonged to the Central Plain, or Lowlands, in which, broadly stated, industries and manufactures, trade, commerce and agriculture and educational facilities have attained their highest development. In every county the population increased between 1801 and 1841, the increase being more than 10% in each county with the exception of Argyll, Perth and Sutherland. After 1841, however, the population in several Highland shires—in which the clearance of crofters to make way for deer was one of the most strongly-felt grievances among the Celtic part of the people—in the islands, and in some of the southern counties, diminished. The next table affords a comparison of the numbers of the population as grouped in towns, villages and rural districts, and in the mainland and islands.

Table III. gives the population of towns with more than 30,000 inhabitants.

The burghs in which the largest proportion of Scottish-born persons lived in 1901 were Kirkcaldy (with 95.997 in every 100 of its inhabitants), Aberdeen (with 94.997), Perth (with 94.442) and Kilmarnock (with 94.046) The largest proportion of English-born were found in Edinburgh (with 5.438%) and Leith (with 4.481). Irish-born were most in evidence in Coatbridge (with 15.158 in every 100), Partick (with 12.05) and Govan (with 11.51). Welsh nationality was most marked in Motherwell (with 0.250%) Those of British-Colonial birth were most numerous in Edinburgh (with 0.933%), and foreigners in Glasgow (with 0.890), Leith (with 0.741) and Hamilton (with 0.720). In addition to the 17,654 resident foreigners there were 4973 foreigners casually in Scotland at the taking of the census in 1901 (1839 men and women on board foreign and British vessels), raising the total of foreigners actually enumerated