Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

Information on infant feeding in Scotland is routinely collected during the Child Health Reviews carried out by the Health Visitor at 10-14 days (known as the First Visit), 6-8 weeks, and 13-15 months. At these visits the Health Visitor will record whether the baby is exclusively breastfed, bottle-fed formula milk, or combined fed (breast and formula). This data is recorded onto the Child Health Systems Programme (CHSP). 

Local Authority comparisons

At the first health visit, 68% of babies in Scotland had been breastfed for at least some period after their birth in 2023/24. Of all Local Authorities in Scotland, West Dunbartonshire had the lowest proportion of babies ever breastfed as recorded at the Health Visitor First Visit (48%). Orkney had the highest percentage ever breastfed (89%), and Glasgow was closer to the national average at 69%.

 

At the six-to-eight-week review, the national average for exclusive breastfeeding was 33% and 49% for combined feeding. Breastfeeding figures for Glasgow were aligned with the Scotland average. At this review, Orkney continued to have the highest proportion of babies exclusively breastfed (59%) and West Dunbartonshire had the lowest proportion (19%). Edinburgh had the highest percentage of babies combined fed (72%) and West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire had the lowest at around 30% of babies combined fed.

At the 13–15-month review, the national average for exclusive breastfeeding was 10% and for combined feeding it was 21%. At this review, East Dunbartonshire, Shetland and Glasgow had the highest proportion of babies exclusively breastfeed (East Dunbartonshire 18%, Shetland 17%, Glasgow 16%), whereas Clackmannanshire, North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire had the lowest rates at around 3%. The percentage of babies combined fed at the 13-15-month review was highest for Edinburgh, Stirling and Moray (around 29%) and lowest in Inverclyde and North Ayrshire (11%).

Overall, it appears exclusive breastfeeding and combined feeding tend to decrease by half at each review. The Islands typically had higher levels of breastfeeding (either exclusively or combined) but these results should be treated with some caution due to small numbers. There continues to be a higher proportion of combined feeding compared to exclusive breastfeeding.

Deprivation 

The figure below shows, at Scotland level, the percentage of babies recorded as being exclusively breastfed at the six-to-eight-week review, by Scottish Index of Multiple deprivation (SIMD) quintile. It demonstrates that there is a strong correlation between exclusive breastfeeding and levels of deprivation, with those living in the least-deprived areas seeing the highest percentage of exclusive breastfeeding in contrast to those living in the most-deprived areas. Since 2002/03 there has been a steady increase in exclusive breastfeeding recorded at the six-to-eight-week review across all SIMD quintiles. The gap in percentage exclusively breastfed for those living in the most- and least-deprived areas decreased slightly from 33% in 2002/03 to 27% in 2023/24. The percentage exclusively breastfed living in the most-deprived areas peaked in the most recent year (2023/24) at 20% while it peaked in 2019/2020 for those living in the least-deprived areas at 48%.

Notes

Latest data on Infant Feeding Statistics for April 2023 – March 2024 are published by Public Health Scotland (PHS).

Further information on infant feeding in Scotland can be found via the Scottish Maternal and Infant Nutrition survey (2017).

Historical data on infant feeding for the UK is available from the Infant Feeding Survey from 1975-2010, and the 2023 survey. 

This page was updated in February 2025.