About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of GP practices in Scotland and the number of patients registered at these practices as at 1 April 2026. It includes statistics on practice list sizes broken down by age group and sex, as well as by deprivation and urban-rural classification, both of which are based on a patient's postcode. This release is the first in the financial year and therefore includes additional trend information.

Main points

As at 1 April 2026:

• The number of patients registered with a GP practice continues to rise year on year and has increased by 5.5% since April 2019 (5,745,080 in 2019 compared with 6,060,737 in 2026).
• The number of GP practices in Scotland has decreased by 8.1% from 958 GP practices in April 2017 to 880 GP practices in April 2026, reflecting a trend towards fewer, larger practices overall.
• Since the last quarter there have been 40,574 newly registered patients in Scotland.

A population pyramid plotting the number of patients registered with a general practice split by sex and five-year age group from 0-4 to 85+, in 2019 compared to 2026. The x-axis shows the patient count from 0-250,000, and the y-axis shows age groups from 00-04 to 85+. Males are plotted on the right hand side with data from 2026 represented by thick dark purple bars, and data from 2019 are represented by light purple thin bars, overlaid on the thick dark purple bars. Female data are plotted on the left hand side with data from 2026 represented by thick magenta coloured bars, and data from 2019 are represented by pink purple thin bars, overlaid on the thicker magenta bars.

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Patients registered with a GP practice by age group and sex; April 2019 compared with April 2026

This population pyramid shows changes in the demographics of patients registered at GP practices over the last eight years. Male patients are shown on the right, and female patients on the left, with darker and lighter bars representing the two different time points. This demonstrates the number of patients has increased over time, particularly in the older age groups. Increases are also seen in the 30 to 44 age group, while the number of patients in the 0 to 9 age group has reduced.

Background

This publication replaces the previous quarterly General Practice Demographics release and the annual General Practice List Sizes release, bringing together all available information on practice list sizes.

The accompanying data visualisation provides quarterly and annual trends available at Scotland, NHS board, Health and Social Care Partnership and GP cluster level, by age group and sex. Practice list sizes for the latest quarter are also available by deprivation and urban-rural classification. These are based on an individual's area of residence and are measured using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification. Data downloads are also available as part of the dashboard.

Information on the number of patients registered with general practices is sourced from the CHI database. Practice details are sourced from the National Primary Care Clinicians Database (NPCCD) which is maintained by NHS boards.

Further information can be found on the General Practice in Scotland section of our website.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be July 2026.