SCOTLAND now attracts more people from the rest of the UK than the number of Scots who leave the country to set up home in other parts of Britain, a new report has found.

A study by the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on Migration and Population found that, since mid-2001, people coming to Scotland from other parts of the UK had helped boost the country's population by 137,000.

That contrasted the situation over the past five decades, when more Scots left the country for other parts of the UK than came to live here from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The report found that "between 1951-52 and 2000-01, 399,000 more people left Scotland for other parts of the UK than moved to Scotland from rUK (the rest of the UK)".

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It stated Scotland had "changed from being a nation that typically experienced a net outflow of population to one where migration had a positive effect on population growth".

But the same report warned of a possible divide between Scotland's cities - which tend to attract more people - and the "wide hinterland" outside them.

The EAG said that, as migrants are often young and "to some extent better educated", this tends to produce a "very significant movement of young people to Scotland's major cities, which offer a wide range of higher education opportunities".

These places could benefit from this "economic dynamism", the report said, but added the situation is in contrast to "those 'left-behind' areas (which) have a much older population, higher demand for public services, and a lack of well-qualified young people".

The EAG said: "This raises a fundamental question about the allocation of public resources between, on the one hand, Scotland's large cities which appear to be the likely engines of future economic growth; and, on the other, the wide hinterland where demographic forces and the present configuration of higher education institutions is leading to an ageing population increasingly dependent on public service support."

Migration Minister Ben Macpherson welcomed the report - but accepted that Scotland still faces "significant population challenges" from the falling birth rate and the UK's exit from the European Union.

He said: "This independent report highlights that more people are moving to Scotland from the rest of the UK than are going in the other direction. That is welcome news.

"But we still face significant population challenges set against a backdrop of a record fall in the birth rate.

"All of Scotland's population growth over the next 25 years is projected to come from migration. If EU migration in Scotland falls to half current levels then our working age population would decline by 1% and the proportion of children by 4.5%."

Macpherson added: "As well as continuing to use our devolved powers to attract more people from the rest of the UK and beyond, increasingly we require new powers and initiatives to enable the Scottish Government, accountable to the Scottish Parliament, to deliver tailor-made policies and solutions, to meet Scotland's needs and address our demographic challenges."