Why are the scottish highlnads so sparsely populated?

the highlands of Scotland are a more remote region, the mountainous terrain, infertile soils, harsher climate and more barren landscape make it a less desirable place to live, not to mention it is harder to settle (roads are harder to build etc) The east coast on the other hand is flat, fertile and has the oil capital of europe there also.

You will find that the central lowlands (glasgow, edinburgh) etc are the most populated because it would be easier to cultivate, build roads etc thus more people lived there, the same can be said of the east coast, and the coastal areas near inverness.

The same is true of America where the flat lowlands of the east/central areas are much more populated than the west side of america (with the exception of the flat coastal strip running from washington, through oregon and down through California), not many people live in the mountain states (utah, nevada, Colorado, montana etc) hence why the east side of america was settled first as the land was simply....better.