General practice - disease prevalence data visualisation

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents a data visualisation of disease prevalence data as at 1 April each year from 2022 to 2026, extracted from GP Practices in Scotland through the Primary Care Intelligence Service (PCIS)

These data provide an overview of disease prevalence as recorded in general practice systems in Scotland, supporting NHS boards, local authorities, policymakers and public health professionals to plan care, monitor population health trends, respond to current needs and prepare for future demand.

Data are presented at GP practice, GP cluster, Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), NHS board, and Scotland level for 20 disease indicators, with numbers of patients and rates per 100 population. These indicators were selected in collaboration with the Scottish Government and representatives from general practice, detail of these can be found in the Disease Indicator coding workbook available on this page. This latest release now includes prevalence rates for migraine and headache, as well as a breakdown of each indicator by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) decile as at 1 April 2026.

The data and underpinning methodology and metadata are available on this page.

Main points

In Scotland as at 1 April 2026:

• Of the 20 indicators, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) was more prevalent in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived areas. The rate was 4.3 per 100 population in SIMD decile 1, the most deprived decile, and 1.0 per 100 population in SIMD decile 10, the least deprived decile.
• Migraine and headache had a rate of 14.0 per 100 population. For all age bands apart from 0 to 4 years, females had a higher rate per 100 population than males. The largest difference between females and males was observed in the 50 to 54 year age band, where the rate per 100 population was 26.9 for females, compared with 12.5 for males.

Background

Data from 866 GP practices are presented in this publication, which represents 98.5% of the 879 GP practices at the time the data extract was taken in May 2026. This represents 99.7% of patients registered with a GP practice in Scotland.

The prevalence for each disease indicator is based on a set of Read codes and drug codes (dm+d), recorded on the general practice patient record. These code sets are reviewed and developed by clinicians and can be downloaded from this page.

Data on disease prevalence in general practice are constructed to support quality of care within general practice. They do not necessarily equate to prevalence as defined by epidemiologists, and may therefore differ from prevalence figures from other sources due to coding or definitional differences.

Further information can be found in the methodology and metadata document and the disease indicator coding workbook on this page.

Further information

The next release of this publication is planned for summer 2027.