It had an estimated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of £218.0 billion in 2023, including oil and gas extraction in the country's continental shelf region.

Other major industries include banking and financial services, construction,[16] education, entertainment, biotechnology, transport equipment, oil and gas, whisky, and tourism.

Despite their new status as citizens of the United Kingdom, it took many decades for Scottish traders to gain a noticeable foothold in the colonial markets which had long been dominated by English merchants and concerns.

[23] German sociologist Max Weber credited the Calvinist "Protestant Ethic", involving hard work and a sense of divine predestination and duty, for the entrepreneurial spirit of the Scots.

The Rootes Group opened a car manufacturing plant in Linwood, Renfrewshire in 1963 at a cost of £23.5M,[28] supported by regional development incentives,[29] and in the space of eighteen years, the facility produced 440,000 vehicles for the company.

Sheep-raising is important in the less arable mountainous regions, such as the northwest of Scotland, which are used for rough grazing, due to its geographical isolation, poor climate and acidic soils.

Parts of the east of Scotland (areas such as Aberdeenshire, Fife and Angus) are major centres of cereal production and general cropping.

Dairy and cattle farmers in south-west Scotland were affected by the 2001 UK Foot and Mouth outbreak, which resulted in the destruction of much of their livestock as part of the biosecurity effort to control the spread of the disease.

The economic activities generated by forestry in Scotland include planting and harvesting as well as sawmilling, the production of pulp and paper and the manufacture of higher value goods.

[citation needed] To rebuild stocks the EU's Common Fisheries Policy places restrictions on the total tonnage of catch that can be landed, on the days at sea allowed and on fishing gear that can be deployed.

In tandem with the decline of sea-fishing, commercial fish farms, especially in salmon, have increased in prominence in the rivers and lochs of the north and west of Scotland.

[49] The North Sea oil and gas industry contributed £35 billion to the UK economy (a little under 1% of GDP) in 2014 and is expected to decline in the coming years.

[53] Manufacturing in Scotland has shifted its focus, with heavy industries such as shipbuilding and iron and steel declining in their importance and contribution to the economy.

It is generally argued that this has been in response to increasing globalisation and competition from low-cost producers across the world, which has eroded Scotland's comparative advantage in such industries over the later half of the 20th century.

The principal companies operating in the sector include; BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Raytheon, Alexander Dennis, Thales, SELEX Galileo, Weir Group and Babcock.

By the end of World War II, Scotland's aviation industry employed an excess of 30,000 people, producing aircraft and aero-engines.

[64] Production remained in cottage industry units but the trading conditions were locked into the modern economy and gave rise to institutions such as the British Linen Bank.

Prior to the 2008 financial crisis Scotland ranked second only to London in the European league of headquarters locations of the 30 largest banks in Europe as measured by market value.

The software sector in Scotland developed rapidly and in 2016 there were an estimated 40,226[90] people working in the digital economy across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.

In the 21st century, with the high rates of growth in many emerging economies of southeast Asia such as China, Thailand and Singapore, there was a drive towards marketing Scottish products and manufactured goods in these countries.

Scotland is well-served by many airlines and has an expanding international route network, with long-haul services to Dubai, New York, Atlanta and Canada.

[103] These ferry services are vital to island communities' economy by bringing in goods and tourists and in exporting textiles, whisky and other produce.

The motorway and trunk road network is principally centred on the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow and connecting them to other major concentrations of population, and is vitally important to the economy of Scotland.

[citation needed] The Scottish railway networks were built in the Victorian era by private investors, primarily for the movement of goods, such as coal.

[citation needed] Scotland is considered to have an advanced communications infrastructure, similar to other Western nations, and has an extensive framework of developed radio, television, landline and mobile phone, as well as broadband internet networks.

Electricity Transmission infrastructure is split between two privately owned Distribution network operators; ScottishPower, and Scottish and Southern Energy and is regulated by OfGEM.

The Scottish Government does not control macroeconomic policy, however it does use public procurement to influence private sector behaviour on reserved matters such as requiring the Real Living Wage[124] to be paid to all its contractors and sub-contractors.

The NHS and social care services are funded from Scottish taxation and the UK block grant and is an almost entirely devolved matter - with procurement of prescription medicines done on a UK-wide basis.

[143] Prescribed drugs were made free at the point of use in 2011, leaving England as the only UK-nation with prescription charges in place (a flat fee of £9.35 per item[144]).

Per capital spending on medical and social care is the highest in Great Britain due to a more dispersed population and worse health inequalities with higher rates of alcohol dependency, alienation, drug addiction, suicide, and violence, which was dubbed 'the Glasgow effect' by the media.