The biggest net loss of people is in the 17 to 20 age group – particularly young women. This is common across all Scottish island health boards though it is greatest among Western Isles population. Out migration of young persons is to some extent compensated by immigration but the net effect remains negative. In-migrants to Western Isles after period of increase has been declining in recent years and this is particularly among overseas working age in-migrants. This is reflected in the drop in National Insurance Number allocations to overseas nationals working in the Western Isles since 2007 particularly in the EU Accession States which has dropped from 80 to 30 in 2009 (Source: DWP)
In recent years life expectancy has been improving for both men and women within the Western Isles, but there remains significant variation between men and women and between Western Isles and the national average. Life expectancy in the Western Isles for latest period is significantly worse for men than women by approximately 9 years at birth(Fig. 4). While women have significantly greater life expectancy in Western Isles compared to Scotland as a whole men on the other hand have a significantly lower life expectancy.
3.3 Socio-economic challenges and Rural Deprivation:
The Western Isles face undoubted socio-economic challenges such that resource deprivation is a very real aspect of life for some of the islands population. This can include low household income and access to affordable and good quality housing. Hence, Western Isles has the 3rd lowest average household income in UK at just £23,400 out of total of 121 areas3 while over 10% homes in Western Isles are ‘below tolerable standard’ compared to 0.5% for Scotland as a whole.4
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is currently the main measurement used by the Scottish Government to rank communities by their level of deprivation according to a number of factors including employment, income, housing, education & training, geographic access and crime. The Western Isles does not have any communities recognized as falling within the most deprived group, which affects the resources made available for regenerating communities and targeting inequalities. It has been recognized that this area-based deprivation measure is not suited to identifying rural deprivation which is not concentrated in particular areas as tends to be the case for more urban communities.
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