Worth a read


In 2012-13 public spending in Scotland was £65.2 Billion. Taxation excluding North Sea Revenues was £47.6 Bn. The gap of £17.6 Bn is quoted as 14% of GDP which indicates that Scotland’s GDP was around £126 Bn. The estimate from the Scottish Government is £132Bn for 2014 (including geographic share of Oil Revenues).
In 2012-13 North Sea Oil brought in around £6.2Bn to the UK and based on a geographic 90% share an independent Scotland would get £5.6Bn of that. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility is predicting that these levels will fall in the years ahead £3.4Bn in 2015-16, £2.9Bn in 2016-17 and £3.2Bn in 2018-19. As a personal note I hadn’t realized oil was such a small part of the total income for the UK.
Assuming the status quo (using figures from 2012-13) then income level for Scotland would be £53.2Bn (47.6 + 5.6) and public spending would be £65.2Bn.
For the whole of the UK GDP for 2012-13 was £1,570Bn so subtracting the £132Bn for Scotland that leaves £1,438Bn. Public spending for the whole of the UK was £731Bn so subtracting the £65Bn for Scotland leaves £666Bn. Total income from Taxation for the UK was £592Bn so subtracting £53Bn for Scotland that leaves £539Bn.
Nearly there….
Scotland population 5.314 Million, income £53.2 Billion so available budget per head is £10,011 per annum
Remainder of the UK population 59 Million, income £666 Billion so available budget per head is £11,288 per annum
Actual public spending per head for 2012-13 is quoted as £8,788 for the UK as a whole and £10,152 per head for Scotland
Finding and interpreting this information is pretty complex so some of my numbers may be wrong. If it’s even close to being right though I will be surprised if people vote in favour as these numbers suggest to me that the economic position of Scotland would decline significantly.