About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows a data visualisation of a range of GP practice demographics data, presented by practice, cluster, Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), NHS Board and Scotland. The most recent data presented are up to 31 December 2023.

The visualisation shows practice list sizes by age, sex and deprivation (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation). It also highlights changes in practice populations between quarters and the number of patients registered in the last year.

Main points

  • At 31 December 2023, there were 5,977,579 registered patients in Scotland. 
  • The number of registered patients in Scotland has increased by 2.1 % over the past two years.
Image caption GP practice demographics for Scotland, 1 October 2023

The number of patients registered in GP practices is larger than the Scottish population as estimated by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). For more information please see Appendix 1 of the latest GP Workforce And Practice List Sizes publication. PHS are investigating this further with the Scottish Government and NRS.

The Demographics data visualisation and the data behind this dashboard can be viewed at the Demographics Visualisation Home Page.

Background

This product has been released for four years now and is based on data received form NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Practitioner Services Division (PSD). The data was  previously available to registered users through a secure log in to the Primary Care Indicators dashboard.

Further information

Data from this publication are available from the publication page on our website.

The next release of this publication will be May 2024.

General enquiries

If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact David Redpath at phs.generalpractice@phs.scot.

Media enquiries

If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.

Requesting other formats and reporting issues

If you require publications or documents in other formats, please email phs.otherformats@phs.scot.

To report any issues with a publication, please email phs.generalpublications@phs.scot.

Older versions of this publication

Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.

Last updated: 21 March 2024
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