The Scottish people (Scots: Scots Fowk, Scottish Gaelic: Albannaich), or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland.

Historically, they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or Alba) in the 9th century, and are thought to have been ethnolinguistically Celts

Later, the neighboring Cumbrian Britons, who also speak a Celtic language, as well as Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons and Norse, are incorporated into the Scottish nation.

In modern usage, "Scottish people" or "Scots" is used to refer to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origins are from Scotland.

The Latin word Scoti was originally the word referred specifically to the Gaels, but coms to describe all inhabitants of Scotland.  The term Scotch, considered archaic or pejorative, has also been used for Scottish people, primarily outside Scotland.

John Kenneth Galbraith in his book The Scotch (Toronto: MacMillan, 1964) documents the descendants of nineteenth-century Scottish pioneers who settled in Southwestern Ontario and affectionately referred to themselves as Scotch.

He states the book was meant to give a true picture of life in the community in the early decades of the twentieth century.

People of Scottish descent live in many countries other than Scotland.

Emigration, influenced by factors such as the Highland and Lowland Clearances, Scottish participation in the British Empire, and latterly industrial decline and unemployment, have resulted in Scottish people being found throughout the world.

Scottish emigrants take with them their Scottish languages and culture.

Large populations of Scottish people settle the new-world lands of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Canada has the highest level of Scottish descendants per capita in the world and the second-largest population of Scottish descendants, after the United States.

Scotland has seen migration and settlement of many peoples at different periods in its history.

The Gaels, the Picts and the Britons have their respective origin myths, like most medieval European peoples.

The Venerable Bede tells of the Scoti coming from Spain via Ireland and the Picts coming from Scythia.

Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxons, arrived beginning in the 7th century, while the Norse invaded and colonized parts of Scotland from the eighth century onward.

In the High Middle Ages, from the reign of David I of Scotland, there is some emigration from France, England and the Low Countries to Scotland.

Some famous Scottish family names, including those bearing the names which become Bruce, Balliol, Murray and Stewart come to Scotland at this time.

Today Scotland is one of the countries of the United Kingdom.