General Practitioner Headcount
2012 - 2023
Official Statistics
Published: 12 December 2023
About this release
This publication presents data on the General Practitioner (GP) workforce contracted to work in Scottish practices in the years 2012 to 2023. This publication was previously released by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and included information on GP practices and their registered patients. With this 2023 release from NHS Education for Scotland (NES), we focus only on workforce data. A separate publication on GP practices and patients will be released by PHS on 19 December 2023.
Main Points
- On 30 September 2023 there were 5,168 GPs (including GP trainees). This represents a 0.4% increase from September 2022.
- The increase in GP headcount in 2023 is due to increasing numbers of GP Specialist Trainees in the workforce.
- The number of female GPs continues to increase; female GP headcount increased by 0.6% 2023 while male GP headcount decreased by 1.6%
- The percentage of the GP workforce aged 50 and over remains at 30%. 40% of the GP workforce is aged under 40.
Number (headcount) of GPs in Scotland 2012-2023
Background
The data in this report are sourced from the National Primary Care Clinician Database (NPCCD) which is a dynamic, administrative database. The full time series is refreshed and updated with each annual release and figures for a given year may therefore differ slightly from previously published data where administrative information has been corrected or updated.
Further Information
Previous GP headcount and practice list size publications can be found on the PHS website.
For workforce information on all medical staff employed directly by the NHS, please see the NHS Scotland Workforce publications produced by NES.