Annual Report 2025/26 - Data Updates and Analysis

The Fragility Index was added as an indicator to the Shetland Partnership’s monitoring in 2024. It is a combined index of three indicators: depopulation, old age dependency ratio (the ratio of people aged 65 and over to the working-age population aged 16-64), and rural depopulation (the change in the proportion of the population living in rural or rural remote areas). A rising index indicates an increasingly fragile demographic. This indicator is compiled by the Improvement Service for their Community Planning Outcomes Profile (CPOP). 

In 2023/24, Shetland’s fragility index score was 113.2, the second highest fragility index compared to other local authorities in Scotland, behind Aberdeenshire.  Other areas of the Highlands and Islands are not experiencing the same change in fragility, measured in this way. Although Shetland’s score is a reduction on the 114.3 score from the previous year, this is largely due to an update on figures due to changes in population figures.  The trend remains upwards, representing an increase in Shetland’s fragility, and at a higher trajectory than Scotland, at 109.0.  

Over the past 10 years (between 2014 and 2024), Shetland’s population decreased by 0.60%. Demographic changes, however, were more significant. In this same period the percentage of people aged 65 and over increased from 18.28% to 22.37%, while the working age population (16-64) dropped from 63.13% to 60.33%. Changes in population in this period differ for different areas of Shetland, for example Shetland Central experienced a population increase of 7.23%, whilst inversely Whalsay & Skerries experienced 7.55% decline. Aside from Shetland Central, both Shetland South (3.64%) and Shetland North (1.85%) experienced population increases, whilst Shetland West (-6.50%), Lerwick & Bressay (-3.64%) and Yell, Unst & Fetlar (-0.06%) joined Whalsay & Skerries in experiencing population decline.

Population aged 16-29