Scots Wikipaedia

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I am always wary of government statistics concerning "secondary" languages. In Ireland the Department of Education and the Department of Arts, Culture, and the Gealtacht could never agree on the percentage of Irish speakers (something between 12% and 60% depending on who did the counting!). With a population of 5.1 million I would be surprised if 1.6 million (or roughly one third of the population) spoke Scots. I would concede that easily that number would be conversant with some words and phrases, although not fluent in the patois.

If these figures were not, in large part, supplied by private companies, fueled by a desire for funding by various state bodies, perhaps I would have a less skeptical view of the statistics.