Infant feeding statistics
Financial year 2024 to 2025
Accredited official statistics
- Published
- 11 November 2025 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This annual release from Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update of infant feeding statistics among children eligible for child health reviews in the financial year 2024/25.
Supporting breastfeeding is an important public health activity, with strong evidence that breastfeeding protects the health of children and mothers. The information is collected at Health Visitor reviews of children at 10-14 days (First Visit), 6-8 weeks, and 13-15 months of age.
Main points
- There have been notable increases in breastfeeding - 69% of babies reviewed in Scotland in 2024/25 were breastfed for at least some time after their birth, compared with 63% in 2016/17.
- In 2024/25, and for the first time since these data began in 2002/03, at the 6-8 week review more babies were being breastfed (34% exclusively breastfed, 17% mixed breast and formula fed) than were being formula fed only (49%).
* For more information on SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) please visit the PHS website
- Over the past 10 years the proportion of babies receiving some breastfeeding has increased at both the first visit (61% in 2024/25 vs 48% in 2014/15) and 6-8 week reviews (51% in 2024/25 vs 38% in 2014/15).
- Breastfeeding is being maintained for longer. In 2024/25, among those who report breastfeeding at any point, a quarter (25%) had stopped breastfeeding by 6-8 weeks. This compares with over a third (36%) who had stopped breastfeeding by 6-8 weeks in 2016/17.
Background
There is strong evidence that breastfeeding provides the best nutrition for babies and young children. It supports children’s health in the short and longer term, including through reduced risk of infections, and also benefits mothers’ health, including through reducing the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Current guidance recommends that babies receive just breast milk for the first 6 months of life, then, after introduction of solid foods, should continue to breastfeed up to at least their second birthday.
Improving breastfeeding rates in Scotland would help to improve the health of babies and mothers, and reduce inequalities in health. There is good evidence that interventions can work to improve breastfeeding rates. These include ensuring good quality of breastfeeding support for mothers, as well as wider interventions, such as influencing public attitudes to breastfeeding, restricting the inappropriate promotion of formula milk, and ensuring supportive employment policies.
Further information
Open data from this publication is available from the Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data portal.
The next release of this publication will be November 2026.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Dr Lynda Fenton at phs.childhealthstats@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
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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.