About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information as at 1 July 2026 on the number of patients registered at GP practices in Scotland. 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. It also presents quarterly and annual trends.

Main points

As at 1 July 2026:

• There were 6,059,839 people registered with a GP practice in Scotland.
• Since the last quarter there have been 36,503 newly registered patients in Scotland.
• The number of patients aged 65 and over has increased by 4.7% since July 2024, from 1,151,847 to 1,205,597 in July 2026.

Line chart plotting the number of patients registered with a GP Practice aged 65 and over from July 2024 to July 2026. The x-axis shows the patient counts from 0 - 1,400,000 and the y-axis shows the quarter timepoints. There is a steady increase from 1,151,847 in July 2024 to 1,205,597 in July 2026.

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Patients registered with a GP practice aged 65 and over, July 2024 to July 2026

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 October 2026.