The Scottish Island Regions geography was first released in 2023 and is used for grouping Scotland’s islands into nine different island regions. The geography is based on the Scottish Island Regions Framework (2020) initially developed by the James Hutton Institute and used as the basis for the National Islands Plan Survey (2020). Further details are published on http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805259657.
The geography is created by allocating eligible islands from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) Island geography, which currently have or have previously had at least one Royal Mail Delivery Point assigned to them, into one of the nine regions. There are a total of 179 currently or previously inhabited islands (excluding the Scottish mainland), which have each been given a unique 3-digit code by NRS. The Scottish Island Regions geography follows the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 by including islands within six Council Areas, and excluding those within inland lochs. The six Council Areas, as defined by the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, are Argyll and Bute, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highland, North Ayrshire, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands. A lookup is available which shows the allocation of the 179 NRS Islands to the Scottish Island Regions. Data zone lookups are also available which provide suggested allocations of data zones to the Scottish Island Regions. Further details on best-fitting 2011 data zones are published on http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805259664.