There were nearly 16,000 more deaths than births in Scotland in 2022, according to figures Tuesday.
Provisional figures show there were 62,942 deaths but just 46,959 births, the National Records of Scotland said in a statement.
"The latest figures for October to December show there were 16,856 deaths, 9.3% higher than the five-year average for this time of year," it said.
The figures showed there was a rise in deaths for a range of causes, including respiratory diseases which were 8.7% higher at 1,900 and the coronavirus which was the underlying cause of 353 deaths during the quarter.
"The gap between deaths and births continues the period of negative natural change, where the number of deaths outnumbers the number of births, which began in 2015," said Julie Ramsay, vital events statistician at National Records of Scotland.
She noted that having fewer births than deaths in a population is referred to as "negative natural change," which means the population will fall without "external factors" such as migration.
Scotland's population is 5.48 million as of last December, according to the UK's Office for National Statistics.
Source: Anadolu Agency