To everybody who sat STEP in 2023... Where were you?

I just sat STEP 2 & 3 recently and was shocked at how few people there were sitting the exam with me. There were 3 candidates in my STEP 2 exam and I was the only one that also sat STEP 3, furthermore the invigilators told us that we were the only test centre in Scotland and that 'there were only about 20 or so people sitting the exam in London'. I get that Scotland is pretty small but the numbers didn't seem to add up to me, especially since no one in my cohort was actually applying to Cambridge. I was told that everybody who received an offer to study maths at Cambridge had to do STEP 2 and STEP 3... so did no one in Scotland get an offer to read Maths at Cambridge or was it mostly international students sitting STEP? or can you wriggle out of doing the exam somehow?

Sorry if I'm just being short sighted. I'd be interested to hear other peoples experiences!