Where do Raith Rovers rank in attendance table as Scottish football is rated best supported in Europe?

Raith fans among the 4436 crowd for 3-1 Scottish Cup fifth round home win over Motherwell (Pic Fife Photo Agency)

New statistics show the SPFL had 21.3 attendees per 1,000 people at matches across its top four divisions, and a weekly average support of 117,700 fans.

This attendance per capita is a remarkable 65 per cent higher than second-placed country the Netherlands, which has 12.9 attendees per 1000 people.

The transfermarkt summary has Denmark in third with 12.2 attendees per 1,000 people, followed by Iceland with 12.0 attendees and England & Wales with 11.4 attendees.

Local side Raith Rovers have an average attendance of 1976 at Stark’s Park in the Scottish Championship this season, placing them fifth in the league table.

But Raith’s biggest home gate of the campaign came when 4436 fans attended the 3-1 home Scottish Cup fifth round win over Motherwell on February 11.

In league terms, a full list of the Scottish Championship clubs’ average attendances reads: 1 Dundee 4734; 2 Partick Thistle 2896; 3 Ayr United 2267; 4 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2109; 5 RAITH ROVERS 1976; 6 Arbroath 1896; 7 Greenock Morton 1779; 8 Hamilton Accies 1405; 9 Queen’s Park 1114; 10 Cove Rangers 928.

Neil Doncaster, SPFL chief executive, said: “The incredible passion of Scottish football fans is well-documented, and it’s absolutely fantastic to see our game has once again, by some margin, the highest attendance per capita in European football.

"It’s an enormous vote of confidence for our game. Attendances in Scotland have significantly outperformed other countries of a similar size for some time now, and the financial importance of gate receipts to our clubs was starkly underscored during the pandemic, when matches were played behind closed doors.”

Last season, over four million fans turned out to watch their teams across all four Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) divisions.

A total of 4,082,038 fans attended matches across the cinch Premiership, cinch Championship, cinch League 1 and cinch League 2, including play-off fixtures.