A UEFA study of football in Europe has found Scotland is among the highest on the continent for employing "expatriate" players and total player value is less than a fifth of the English Championship.

European football's governing body has published its annual Benchmarking Report, studying every aspect of club football.

The report compiled demographic breakdowns and player value across its professional leagues in addition to the detailed financial information.

Among the findings on leagues across Europe, a study was made of how many players in a domestic league came from outwith that national association.

The Scottish game lagged behind most others in terms of domestic players in their own league.

"Expatriate players" accounted for 50.5% of all players in the Scottish top flight, the seventh highest ratio in Europe.

The only countries with a higher percentage were England (Premiership and Championship), Cyprus, Belgium, Portugal and Italy.

When assessing the difference in value across football on the continent, some other standout figures emerged.

Proximity has long seen Scotland compared to England but has been left behind by the English Premier League due to the influx of television money over the last few decades.

The EPL's total player value in 2015 was €4.4bn (£3.8bn), the highest in the world.

The​ ​Scottish Premiership was​ ​in​ ​44th​ ​place​ ​with​ ​a​ ​total​ ​player​ ​value​ ​of​ ​​€128m.​

With many players heading south from the Scottish game, many have seen the English Championship as a closer comparison for our game but the second-tier in England has the 10th highest value of player pool in the world at €750m.

Hibernian​ ​and​ ​Rangers​ ​playing in​ ​the​ ​second​ ​tier contributed to​ ​the​ ​Scottish​ ​Championship​ ​being ​in​ ​89th​ ​place on​ ​€41m.

The report also measured the average age of head coaches and managers across the continent, with Scotland's 43.5 lower than major leagues like England (52.0), Spain (50.0) and Italy (49.1).

Job security was above the European average for the 2014/15 season.

The average age of player in the Scottish top flight was just above the European average at 25.9 but slightly lower than England's 26.9 years.

The highest average ages could be found in Turkey and Russia (27.1).

Stepping down a division in Scotland, the average age of player was 24.9 years. The second tier in the Netherlands was the lowest recorded at just 23.1 years.