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Births in Scotland

Annual update to information on births in Scotland. This includes information on the mother, the delivery and the baby, available at various geographies including NHS Board, council area and hospital level.

Further information on these data can be found in the full publication report and the technical report.

Relevant background and metadata can be found in the technical report.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Scottish Morbidity Record 02 (SMR02), Scottish Birth Record (SBR) and National Records of Scotland (NRS)
Author PHS Pregnancy, Birth and Child Health Team
Version 1.0
Last Updated October 30, 2025, 11:02 (GMT)
Created October 12, 2018, 09:53 (BST)
Contact Address Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9EB
Subject Birth and Maternity
Frequency Annual
Time frame of data and timeliness The delay between data timeframe and date of publication is mainly due to delays in data submissions.
Coverage Covers births in Scotland since 1997/98.
Completeness Considered complete. There is generally a shortfall in the number of births when compared to NRS birth registrations.
Accuracy SMR02 data are subjected to validation on submission. Figures are compared to previous figures and expected trends.
Continuity of data Data is continuously reported since 1997/98.
Concepts and definitions Further information is provided in the associated technical document: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/births-in-scotland
Disclosure The PHS statistical disclosure protocol has been followed.
Revision statement Data for the most recent year are generally noted as provisional (due to a small shortfall in completeness of data) at time of publication. The data are then routinely revised at next year's update.
Official statistics designation National Statistics
Relevance and key uses of the statistics Making information publicly available for planning, epidemiology, provision of services, monitoring standards, and the statistics provide comparative information.
Format CSV
Language English
Links

Births in Scotland full report, summary report and data tables

Data Dictionary for SMR02