Births were at their highest level since 1999

Provisional figures suggested there were 41,111 births in the first three quarters of 2005, the highest figure since 1999 and up 479 on 2004.

There were 14,216 births in July, August and September - up by 384, or 2.8%, on the same time last year.

Registrar General Duncan Macniven, who published the statistics, said they were "encouraging".

The Vital Events Quarterly Return contains provisional figures for the number of births, deaths and marriages in Scotland.

It is encouraging that there were almost 400 more births in the third quarter of this year than a year ago Duncan Macniven Registrar General

It said that the number of deaths fell by 2% to 12,805 between July and September.

During that period there were about 1,400 more births than deaths in Scotland.

However, over the course of the first nine months of 2005 there were almost 1,000 more deaths than births.

There were 12,330 marriages in the third quarter of this year, down from 12,715 the previous year.

Mr Macniven said: "Though we should not make too much of quarterly figures like these, it is encouraging that there were almost 400 more births in the third quarter of this year than a year ago.