Request

Statistics published by Public Health Scotland show that as of 1 October 2021, there were 5,831,256 patients registered with GP practices in Scotland. This is despite the latest population statistics showing Scotland has a population of 5.47 million people. As such, the figures would suggest there are a further 400,000 odd people not living in Scotland who are registered with practices here.

Please can you provide an explanation as to the disparity between the two numbers.

Can you also provide any figures you have showing how many people registered with GP practices in Scotland but not part of the Scottish population (i.e. British ex-patriots) there are? If possible, please break these stats down to show any other info you can such as what country the ex-patriots or other categorisations live in and their age and genders.

Last updated: 26 May 2023