Irrefutable Evidence – It’s not Scotland that’s too poor to be independent, its England!

I have spent some time, OK a lot of time, gathering figures between Scotland and England to try and build a picture of how the main drivers of each economy (and some that drive Brexit) compare between each country per head of population.  The UK fiscal make up is messy.  Some of the information comes from devolved governments, others come from the UK Government or their associated authorities, but all of the information and numbers I conclude in this blog post have sources at the foot of the blog post.  In time I will look at the entire makeup of the UK and plot some charts to see how we compare in other areas, such as Construction, Fresh Water, Financial Services and Manufacturing etc.

Below are a list of 11 areas that I have broken down.  At the foot of the blog post are all the links you will need.

I have used a population figure of 5,250,000 for Scotland and 55,000,000 for England.

So let’s look at the breakdown.

UntitledCoastline

Scotland has a coastline (mainland only) of 6,160 miles, this increases to around 9,000 miles if you include the islands, but for the time being let’s ignore them.  England has a coast line of 2,748 miles.  Coast line is very difficult to get exact because it constantly moves and where do you stop?  Do you count every single rock? But as per the British Geological Survey, the numbers I list are as accurate as can be.  Scotland has more coastline per head than England.  Each Scot, therefore, has an equivalent of 1.8 metres versus just 8 centimetres for folks in England.

Scotland 1-0 England!

Sea Area

Scotland has a sea area of 462,263 square kilometres as listed on Marine Scotland.  England has a sea area of 229,996 square kilometres.  That means Scotland has more sea area per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 0.09 square kilometres versus just 0.004 square kilometres in England.

Scotland 2-0 England!

Forest

Scotland has a forested area of 1,440,000 hectares.  England has a forested area of 1,302,800 hectares.  That means Scotland has more forest per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 2,700 square meters versus just 240 square meters in England.

Forested area for England is more difficult to work out.  The total forested area of the UK is 3.17 million hectares.  10% of England is forested.  England has an area of 130,279 km², so 10% of that is 13,027 km² which in hectares is 1,302,800.

Scotland 3-0 England!

Farmland

Scotland has a farmland area of 5,700,000 hectares according to source 11.  England has a farmland area of 8,515,570 hectares.  That means Scotland has more farmland per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 10,860 square meters versus just 1,550 square meters in England.

Again, trying to find information on the total farm land in England is difficult.  We know from source 8 below that 17.2 million hectares is listed as farm land for the whole UK.   We also know that includes Scotland’s, so let’s remove Scotland’s.  That leaves us 11.5million hectares.  We know from source 9 below that 88% of welsh land is listed as agricultural land which equates to 18,246.8 square kilometres or 1,824,680 hectares.  Northern Ireland, according to source 10 lists 75% of its land area as farm land, that’s equivalent to 10,597.5 square kilometres or 1,059,750 hectares.  So if we remove Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the 17,500,000 hectare figure we are left with the total for England

Scotland 4-0 England!

Oil Reserves

Scotland has Oil reserves of 12,000,000,000 bbls.  England has oil reserves of 1,300,000,000 bbls.  That means Scotland has more oil reserves per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 2,286 bbls versus just 24 bbls in England.

Scotland, as per Treasury estimates in Source 12 below has 90% of all North Sea oil in Scottish waters.  The Oil and Gas UK estimates between 10-20 billion barrels left as per source 13.  Let’s use the 20 billion for arguments sake, not that it matters as it’s all proportionate.  The Oil and Gas UK also state that of the 20 billion bbls left, 2/3s of that is Oil, 1/3 is Gas as a measure of barrels of equivalent (boe).  Scotland has 90% of the oil, so it has 12 billion bbls.  England has 10%, so it has 1.3 billion bbls.

Scotland 5-0 England!

Gas Reserves

Scotland has Gas reserves of 3,996,000,000 boe (barrels of equivalent).  England Gas reserves of 2,664,000,000 boe (barrels of equivalent.  That means Scotland has more Gas reserves per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 761 boe versus just 48 boe in England.

See above (oil) for Gas equivalent.  1/3 of the bbls of Oil and Gas is Gas alone and as per source 14 below.

Scotland currently holds 60% of all UK Gas reserves as listed in the 2015/16 Oil and gas statistics, source 15 below.

Scotland 6-0 England!

Renewables

Scotland has a renewable energy capacity of 24,826 GW.  England has a renewable energy capacity of 14,074 GW.  That means Scotland has more renewable energy per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 4,700 kWh versus just 260 kWh in England.

Renewables, like most other things needs digging around.  Scotland’s figures are easy to find, but English numbers are mixed in with everyone else’s.  Source 17 below shows that the UK capacity for renewables is 38,900 GW, Scotland runs 24,826 GW (source 16) of that, so again, I just gave England the benefit of the doubt and included Wales and Northern Ireland in their figures.

Scotland 7-0 England!

Fish Landings

Scotland has an annual fish landing weight of 466,000,000 kg.  England has an annual fish landing weight of 235,000,000 kg.  That means Scotland has more fish landings per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of 89 kg versus just 4 kg in England.

For fishing, I actually gave England the benefit of the doubt.  The total weight landed in the UK was 701,000,000 kg.  We know Scotland landed 466,000,000 kg of that, so the remainder I just assigned to England giving them 235,000,000 kg (includes any from Wales and NI).  See Source 18 below for Scotland and 19 for UK.

Scotland 8-0 England!

Tourism Income

Scotland has an annual tourism income of £11,000,000,000 according to sources 20 and 21.  England has an annual tourism income of £106,000,000,000 according to source 22.  That means Scotland has more tourist income per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of £2,095 versus just £1,927 in England.

Scotland 9-0 England!

GDP

Scotland has an annual GDP income of £179,948,111,400, source 23.  England has an annual GDP income of £1,754,520,000,000.  That means Scotland has more GDP income per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of £34,276 versus just £31,900 in England.

For GDP figures, they are listed in $ and as such I converted it to £.

GDP for England is difficult again to find out so I had to find the most recent estimates for Wales and Northern Ireland, see sources 24 and 25 below and then remove that from the entire UK GDP (source 26 (again converted to £)) to be left with England.

Scotland 10-0 England!

Total Exports

Scotland has an annual export income of £75,600,000,000.  England has an annual export income of £256,502,150,000.  That means Scotland has more export income per head than England.  Each Scot has an equivalent of £14,400 versus just £4,664 in England.

Again, as per so many other areas, England is listed as the UK and it’s hard to separate them.  Source 27 give us Scotland’s export income.  Source 28 gives us the whole of the UK at $374 billion, again we need to convert to £.

Wales has about £16.4 billion, source 29, and Northern Ireland at about £6.3 billion, source 30.

Scotland 11-0 England!

Now you can read this any way you want.  I read it simply as this…

It’s not Scotland that is too poor to be independent, its England!

*Note – To any Unionists who feel that all they can bring to my blog via the comments is to comment on grammar and spelling, your comment will be deleted.

Sources

Coastline

Source 1 (scroll to Geology and geomorphy)

Source 2 (scroll to coastline)

Source 3

Sea Area

Source 4

Forest

Source 5 (page 5)

Source 6

Farmland

Source 8 (scroll to land)

Source 9

Source 10

Source 11

Oil Reserves

Source 12

Source 13 (last bullet point, taken higher estimate (irrelevant though as its proportionate)

Gas Reserves

Source 14 (point 4, page 12 for 1/3 breakdown)

Source 15 (Scotland has 60% of UK gas production)

Renewables

Source 16 (under Output)

Source 17 (page 160 under chart 6.5)

Fish Landings

Source 18

Source 19

Tourism Income

Source 20

Source 21

Source 22

GDP

Source 23 (right hand side, 2018 estimate)

Source 24 (right hand side, 2015)

Source 25 (under Overview)

Source 26

Total Exports

Source 27

Source 28

Source 29

Source 30

40 thoughts on “Irrefutable Evidence – It’s not Scotland that’s too poor to be independent, its England!”

    1. I mean what on earth does the length of coastline actually mean. Bearing in mind a lot are uninhabited islands with no economic value.

      You didn’t look at ports that accept ocean going ships.

      I didn’t think you could get more biased but you have put done yourself.

      You made no mention of the Scottish deficit. What is it now? 13bn a year? 7.9%.

      Absolute joke.

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      2. Well we all know that the deficit figure you quote was retracted as it included expense paid by Westminster for their operations in Scotland. Seems you didn’t see the government/BBC retraction of that figure. Pity you aren’t as diligent as MacAlba eh?

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      3. bearing in mind the main part of the deficit is caused by westminster, which of course Scotland has agreed to pay a percentage, more than what its due, so anyone thats a joke is you, all the links and all the resources are their for you to look into, shame you never looked into anything yourself, and making yourself look a bigger idiot than you are, to stupid that your all wrong in england, does not deserve a capitol letter

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Coastline is relevant because Scotland has a huge tidal movement for renewables. Just look at the world’s most powerful tidal generator in Orkney.

    Regards being bankrupt…I’m not even going to entertain the ignorance of basing an independent Scotland from a perspective of GERS in the union.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. England alone is slightly hamstrung on coastline by the Welsh border. But since even with Devolution England still holds a strong whip hand over Wales and still well post Brexit I feel the Welsh coastline and sea area should be added to Englands if it is not already included.

    Scotland is close to Independence and NI is looking increasingly likely to rejoin the South and the South is warming to the idea to avoid the border issue. Wales though are heavily Settled and their Devolution is the weakest and they are still in love with Labour despite the manifest mismanagement. So I think ‘England’ should be like the cricket team with the ‘and Wales’ left off but tacitly understood. Except of course by ignorant Englanders who as why ‘England’ are playing a test in Cardiff.

    Walengland doesn’t have Scotland’s wealth of tidal races but I bet you would get big returns from massed turbines between Anglesey and the Mainland. Adding Wales won’t add much to the sea area because it is limited by Ireland.

    Liked by 2 people

  18. Bob, would you prefer if i sourced information on the UK situation from a Canadian media outlet, or perhaps the Nigerian Governments website?

    But to answer your point, the BBC, in the main is biased. They have already admitted they get 70% of their statistics from the Tories and they are, as a state broadcaster, obliged to support the cohesion of the state…they also, as a side note force you under penalty of criminality to fund them…

    Regards UK Gov stats, well if i dont use them, it’ll be labelled wrong…and here, as is obvious, if i do use them, you attempt to spin them as ‘conspiracy biased, scottish nationalist, crazy things’…

    Liked by 1 person

  19. This is really interesting. Thank you for the read.
    In geology terms – England is sinking and Scotland is rising. I feel a theme coming on….

    Liked by 1 person

  21. “The UK is already in the WTO, Scotland is not Let”s add some to that: The UK is already in NATO, Scotland is not The UK is already on the Security Council, Scotland is not The UK already has a credit rating, Scotland does not The UK already has treaties and memberships, Scotland dies not and so on. BUT the rUK has nothing. ” If you think UK-EU negotiations are tough wait and see what negotiations between an England and Wales government and a Scottish government would be like! When the UK leaves the EU, the EU continues to exist. When Scotland leaves the UK, the UK CEASES to exist. Now you begin to see why Scotland has the upper hand in any negotiations. If you think the EU is being tough on the UK, you”ll be quivering in your slippers by the time Scotland has finished. Strength and right is on our side if the rUK wants to be the cUK and not cuckolded completely. Cukoo! It must be May already

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  23. But in fact, UK GDP 2017 estimate was £1,993bn, with an estimated population of 66,687,000. Scotland GDP 2017 estimate was £180bn with an estimated population of 5,424,800. So, GDP per capita was £3,704 greater in Scotland than in the rUK.

    GDP Population GDP Per Capita
    UK £1,993,046,800 66,687,113 £29,887
    Scotland £180,589,680 5,424,800 £33,290
    rUK £1,812,457,120 61,262,313 £29,585

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  24. Loved reading the pre-referendum, pre-oil price collapse article you used as Source 12 dated 16/04/2013.
    “Last month (11 March) the Scottish government released analysis which predicted a “renewed oil boom”.
    Its first Oil and Gas Analytical Bulletin predicts that production in Scottish waters could generate as much as £57bn in tax revenue by 2018.”
    Truth is Scotland’s “geographical share” of North Sea revenue from 2013 to 2017 both years included totalled £6.467bn. That £10bn+ a year black hole resulted in Scotland’s revenue for 2017 being £59.957bn against total public sector expenditure of £73.398bn.
    This gives a Net Fiscal Balance of
    -£13.441bn. As a % of GDP that is -7.9%. Of the 28 present EU member states the largest -ve Net Balance belongs to Spain at -3.1%.
    If you wish to use oil and gas reserves as a case for independence then I would suggest that you are 40 years too late.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Stop being an idiot. Source 12 is in relation to the 90% share. That is in regards to the predicted oil LEFT…Not what has been extracted.

      I would delete your comment as I’m fed up with Unionists attacking the article based on stuff I haven’t written I.e. GERS and “the deficit” but I’ll leave it here so others can see the stupidity of your comment and how unionists use any and all means to deflect away from what is written to suit their narrative of “Scotland is the only country in the world not capable of being independent because it’s the only country to be so well endowed with resources that it couldn’t possibly be as good as other countries”.

      Don’t reply!

      Liked by 1 person

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