The SNP has won its fifth consecutive Scottish Parliament election after securing 58 seats
Labour and Reform were tied for second after both parties finished with 17 seats
The Scottish Greens secured 15 seats, with the Scottish Conservatives on 12 and the Scottish Lib Dems on 10
The final result was declared in the Highlands and Islands regional list more than 16 hours after counting began
SNP leader John Swinney says he hopes to "enjoy a more co-operative relationship" with the UK government when he returns to Holyrood
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar admits his party has lost the argument for change and "is hurting"
Reform's Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, says his party has built a "very solid base"
Elections are also taking place in England and Wales where Labour leader Eluned Morgan has lost her seat. You can keep across the wider UK picture through our live coverage
Thank you for staying with us as the Scottish election continued into the early hours.
We are now pausing our live coverage but will resume on Saturday morning, when we will bring you more from the political parties as well as reaction and analysis.
The SNP has won its fifth Scottish Parliament election in a row, taking 58 seats. It is by far the largest party but is short of an overall majority.
Labour and Reform tied for second place with 17 seats each.
SNP 'emphatically' won
Labour 'hurting'
Reform wins its first seats
Scottish Greens win first constituency seats
Scottish Conservatives have a 'tough election'
Lib Dems win key seats
Phil Sim
Scotland political correspondent
The SNP has defied political gravity by winning a fifth consecutive term in office.
Yes, John Swinney's party has fallen short of their self-imposed goal of securing an outright majority - but the Holyrood system makes that an incredibly tall order.
And they will finish miles clear of a hopelessly fractured pack of opposition parties.
Labour and the Conservatives are each in a desperate position, with the former having lost seats at every Holyrood poll since 1999 and the latter scoring their worst ever result.
Reform UK meanwhile have come from nowhere to tie with Labour in second place. Having sparked frequent confrontations and fiery rhetoric during the campaign, they may have a similarly explosive impact on the new term of parliament.
The Scottish Greens are in bouyant mood, having captured their first ever constituencies and list representation in every part of Scotland.
And the Lib Dems have shaken off the shock loss of Shetland to grab new seats from the rural Highlands to the urban central belt.
All three of those parties will feel they have growing influence, and will want to make their mark on the next five years.
After a dramatic day, here's a selection of images showing how the Scottish election unfolded.
Image source, PA MediaVote counting started across Scotland at 09:00 this morning
Image source, Getty ImagesSNP leader John Swinney celebrated his victory in the Perthshire North constituency
Image source, Getty ImagesHolly Bruce (centre) won Nicola Sturgeon's former seat in Glasgow Southside for the Scottish Greens
Image source, PA MediaScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar (left) said his party was "hurting" as results started coming in.
Image source, PA MediaThomas Kerr was among the first Reform MSPs to be elected to the Scottish Parliament
Image source, PA MediaScottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton won his seat in the Edinburgh North Western constituency
Image source, PA MediaScottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay watched the votes being counted at Braehead Arena
Image source, PA MediaNo election is complete without a candidate in an unusual outfit... Wildlife campaigner and election candidate Robert Pownall, who was dressed as a gannet, stood in Edinburgh Central against the SNP's Angus Robertson and successful Scottish Green Party candidate Lorna Slater
With the much-delayed Highlands and Islands result now in, we have full details of the regional MSP vote.
Kirsten Campbell
BBC Scotland political correspondent
Everything in Holyrood is proportional to your electoral success, so opposition parties get a share of debating time and committee convenerships (which will be elected for the first time in this parliament) in relation to their size.
With Labour and Reform UK tied in second place it’s likely the parties' business managers on the parliamentary bureau will have to come to agreement about seating arrangements in the chamber and the location of office selection.
My guess is that the parties will take it in turns each week to ask the first question at FMQs, but they will get the same number of follow-up questions.
It also means that if either party gives up an MSP to act as presiding officer it would drop into third place.
The regional list result for Highlands and Islands is in. Reform (Vic Currie and Max Bannerman) and the Scottish Greens (Arianne Burgess and Kristopher Leask) both won two seats. The SNP (Maree Todd), the Scottish Conservatives (Tim Eagle) and the Scottish Lib Dems (Morven-May MacCallum) all picked up one seat apiece.
In that final result, Reform and the Scottish Greens both won two seats on the regional list in the Highlands and Islands.
The SNP, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Lib Dems all picked up one seat apiece.
The SNP has won its fifth Scottish election with 58 seats - but fallen short of an overall majority.
Confirmation came as the final result was declared in the Highlands and Islands regional list, more than 16 hours after counting began.
Labour and Reform were tied for second after both parties won 17 seats, with the Scottish Greens finishing fourth with 15 seats.
It looks like the Highlands and Islands result is finally about to be announced.
We'll bring you details of the declaration as soon as we have it.
With the last regional list result still to come in, the papers went to print without a final tally of MSPs - but were still able to give their take on it.
The National bundles the Scottish vote with the success of Plaid Cymru, pointing out that nationalist parties are now the largest in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Daily Record challenges John Swinney to deliver change after his party secured a fifth term in office.
Other papers, however, point out that the SNP leader failed to secure the outright majority which he had said would be a mandate for another independence referendum.
And, despite the Scottish Conservatives losing more than a dozen seats, the Scottish Daily Express declares that the "blue wall" had held.
The Times, in its Scottish edition, says Swinney has been denied a majority, while The Scotsman also highlights the "surge" of Green votes.
The Scottish Sun says it's a historic win for the SNP but also a "support slump" which left Swinney well short of a majority, while the Scottish Daily Mail says thousands of Scots voted tactically to send a message to the SNP leader.
Meanwhile, the defeat of SNP's Angus Robertson by Lorna Slater of the Scottish Greens is the lead story for the Edinburgh Evening News.
As we enter the second day of counting in the Highlands, a breakdown of the other declared regional list results shows the spread of seats among parties other than the SNP.
Iain Macinnes
BBC Scotland
There are folk in deckchairs here dozing off at the count in Inverness.
I can see a man in a Stetson hat, plenty people swigging fizzy juice in an effort to stay awake, and folk are getting a bit delirious.
There is still adjudication going on for the regional list, but I’ll be here to the bitter end to bring you the result - which could still be really important when it comes to the make-up of the Scottish Parliament.
Kirsten Campbell
BBC Scotland political correspondent
To all those journalists who opined about how much they missed an overnight count, be careful what you wish for...
Almost 15 hours after counting got under way we’re still waiting for the final Highlands and Islands list result.
This will determine the final make-up of the Scottish Parliament and which party takes second place in the election.
It’s significant because it will determine not just the seating arrangements at Holyrood but also who gets to ask the first question at first minister’s questions.
Look back at the key moments from across the day as the results of the Scottish election emerged.
The Scottish election results - in one minute
A breakdown of how the vote share has changed compared to the last Holyrood election shows the dip in SNP support and the emergence of Reform.
Phil Sim
Scotland political correspondent
This election has come tantalisingly close to an outright majority - of new MSPs.
As it stands, with one region still to declare, there are 59 new MSPs set to turn up for orientation at Holyrood on Monday.
A good few of them have been MPs or councillors or indeed Holyrood staffers previously, so they will not be complete novices.
But there will still be quite a learning curve for the new members.
And given there has been huge turnover in the SNP ranks, with a number of very experienced members leaving, the same could well be true of John Swinney's cabinet.
We may well see some first-time MSPs going straight into government.
We're still waiting for the final result from the Highlands and Islands regional list.
Our reporter Iain Macinnes has been patiently waiting in the hall in Inverness to bring you the declaration which will complete the picture in the Scottish election.
However, there is still no estimate for when the result will be known.
We will bring you that result when it happens right here - but it may be some time...
Political scientist Prof Ailsa Henderson says that comparing the 2026 regional list votes with those from 2021 we can see that half of the Reform votes have been taken from the Scottish Conservatives.
She says they are pulling 12% from previous SNP list supporters, 11% from Labour and 15% from a group that did not vote in 2021.
She adds that the Scottish Greens, by contrast, were pulling a third of their 26% from their previous 2021 support, 28% from previous SNP list supporters and 24% from that "did not vote" group.
She says this group includes those who chose not to vote and those who were too young to be eligible in 2021.
Phil Sim
Scotland political correspondent
Fergus Ewing's defeat in Inverness and Nairn means there are just two MSPs left who have represented the same seats from 1999 through to the next term.
Jackie Baillie has racked up her seventh win in Dumbarton, and John Swinney has maintained his streak in Perthshire North.
Remarkably the first minister has triumphed over the same man every single time - Tory Murdo Fraser.
For all of the churn and change today, there are at least a few constants in Scottish politics.
