The Evangelical Alliance has published a new report that sets out the "vital role" of Christianity in Scotland.

What kind of nation? How Christianity contributes to the future of Scotland is being launched today in the Scottish Parliament, 10 years after the EA's landmark report What Kind of Nation? Manifesto for a Future Scotland was published in the lead-up to the Scottish referendum on independence in 2014.

The report identifies a number of key areas where Christians have an important role to play. These include education, the economy, poverty, and drug-related deaths - Scotland has the highest rates in Europe.

However, the report sees depopulation as the "biggest public policy problem in Scotland" and says that the issue is "not given the attention it is due".

"The problem is especially acute in parts of the Highlands and Islands, but across the whole of Scotland birth rates have declined for years," it reads.

"This means that in future we will have a disproportionately smaller working age population compared to children and retired adults, which creates huge socio-economic problems."

While the EA welcomes the Scottish Government's depopulation action plan as a step in the right direction, it says "we need to do much more to make it as easy as possible to have and raise a family in Scotland".

The Scottish government has committed to giving local authorities in underpopulated areas funding to support initiatives aimed at attracting or keeping more young people.  

The EA recommends that the government also increase childcare provision and do more to welcome migrants from abroad, and support families that foster or adopt children.

Official figures out this week show that although Scotland's population experienced faster growth in the year up to mid-2023 than at any time since the 1940s, this was largely due to migration into the country.

Esther Roughsedge, head of demographic statistics at National Records of Scotland (NRS) said: "Almost two-thirds of people moving to Scotland came from outside the UK. We also saw a fall in the number of people leaving Scotland.

"Without migration into Scotland, the population would have fallen."

She added: "Deaths outnumbered births by the highest amount on record. There were 19,100 more deaths than births."

Elsewhere in its report, the EA expressed concerns about how religion is taught in schools and the Scottish government's draft guidance on relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP), which aims to "embed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusive education across the curriculum".

"There needs to be improvements made to the provision of how religion, faith or belief is taught in schools, which would contribute to a better understanding of the role of faith in public life," the EA's report says.

"We have engaged on the Scottish Government's plans to change relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education and will continue to strive for the curriculum in this area to be taught, discussed and shared in respectful and age-appropriate ways."