About Scotland

Scotland is a small country of around 5 million people, and the northern part of the UK, sharing a border with England.

Although still part of the UK, Scotland has its own devolved Government, dividing responsibilities with the UK government.

Scotland has over 700 islands, with around 100 inhabited and the mainland measures around 650 km from the north to south.

Aside from the islands to the west and north, Scotland divides roughly into three. The central belt between Glasgow in the west and Edinburgh in the east is the busy industrial heartland of the country, with around half the population.

To the south is the rolling farmland, small towns and villages of the Border area.

The University cities of Stirling, Dundee and Aberdeen are the other main areas of population, leaving plenty of wild, wide open spaces in the rest of the beautiful highland countryside.

English is spoken all over Scotland though in some areas with a very strong local accent. About 1.3% of the population speak the Gaelic language (as well as English), mostly on the west coast and western islands.

In a recent survey, of the two-thirds of people in Scotland who said they were religious, 65% were Christian (Church of Scotland, Catholic etc). The remainder were spread across other world religions.

Scotland, and especially the university cities, are very multicultural, welcoming students from all over the world. But Scotland has a long history of peaceful diversity with Polish, Italian, Asian and Indian communities since the 1950s.

More recently, the newer European Union countries have meant a welcome influx of students and young workers to Scotland.

Scotland shares a Celtic culture and heritage with places like Ireland, Wales, Brittany in France and parts of Spain.