Not for nothing did the novelist William McIlvanney once refer to Scotland as 'a mongrel nation'. Historically derived from a multi-ethnic mix of Celtic, Pictish, English, Germanic and Norse antecedents (to name but a few), modern Scots – shrewdly and thankfully – make no attempts to base any nationalist claims on notions of racial purity. Scotland’s population today, indeed, boasts greater diversity than ever, with numerous waves and currents of immigration over the last two to three centuries introducing Irish, Jewish, Lithuanian, Italian and Polish communities to its social and cultural mix, followed by more recent arrivals from the Indian subcontinent and China.

As well as welcoming new citizens from abroad (a tradition currently being revived under the Scottish Government’s 'Scotland is the Place' campaign), Scots have always been known as great travellers and world settlers, with substantial emigration to Canada, the US and Australia (as well as England) continuing until the late 20th century, and establishing substantial populations of 'hyphenated' Scots in each of these countries.

The 2001 Census reported Scotland's population as 5,062,011.