One of the more impressive stats on Scottish football is just how much the game is watched and attended by the population of this country. With the population figure standing at around 5.5 million in this small land, the figures that have been gathered for weekly attendances at grounds up and down the SPFL Leagues is quite remarkable.
Consistently we have to listen to Anglo-centric pundits – and a lot of the time our own – downplaying and disrespecting the product we have here in Scotland. Sure, there are aspects that are poor; plastic pitches, part-time referees, and a Governing body that lets a certain club away with all sorts via a secretive 5 Way Agreement , but there is still a hell of a lot of decent games of football every, single week.
Well, information collated from transfermarkt and fbref by @belfootstats have shown that Scottish football actually has the highest recorded attendance in Europe per capita. That’s the amount of people attending games in relation to the overall population of the country concerned.
Scotland’s figures are so high that the nearest coutnry to them in this regard is the Netherlands – and they don’t even come close! With Scotland’s population sitting at about 5.5 million, the amount of fans attending the football per 1000 is 21.3. The Dutch, who are in second place in the leader charts is 12.9, with a population of 17.2 million!
So per week, Scottish football fans are collectively hitting 117.7K as the amount of heads at the football. The Scottish Premiership has the largest amount unsurprisingly, hitting 97.1K every weekend. The Scottish Championship sees 10.7K footfall, then League One 7.3K, and League Two 2.6K respectively.
Not bad for a pub league, eh?
Nobody watches Scottish football they say…….. pic.twitter.com/2hMyyGbwuY
— Fitbawbag (@GilesGraeme) February 11, 2023
Paul Gillespie
