Scottish Government 'A Fresh Start with Independence' and “Your Right to Decide” online access statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. The number of views on the Scottish Government website of the online paper, A Fresh Start with Independence, by country. For example, X many viewed it while being located in the United Kingdom, Y many viewed it while being located in France, etc.

2. The number of views on the Scottish Government website of the online paper, Your Right to Decide, by country. For example, X many viewed it while being located in the United Kingdom, Y many viewed it while being located in France, etc.

Response

For context, publications on gov.scot exist as both PDFs and multi-page HTML documents. To provide the most accurate figures possible, we have used the number of users who accessed the papers by viewing the HTML pages or downloading the PDFs.

Website analytics data is not 100% accurate for a number of reasons: including where users have opted out or blocked tracking. Additionally, some data is only retained for a maximum of 13 months. Gov.scot implemented new cookie banner settings as of the start of September 2024. Previously all users were opted-in to analytics tracking by default (and could opt out); now the default is that all users must choose if they want to opt in or not. This caused a drop in traffic available in the dashboard which has been calculated to be 39% of the total site usage.

The information presented is from the publication date and until 19 November 2025.

Your Right to Decide, which was published on 4 September 2025:

United Kingdom - 3452
United States - 123
Spain - 59
Germany - 39
Italy - 36
France - 31
Australia - 29
Ireland - 28
India - 25
Netherlands - 25
Canada - 20
Poland - 20
Brazil - 19
Greece - 18
Sweden - 17
Türkiye - 14
Belgium - 12
Japan - 11
Denmark - 9
Portugal - 9
Norway - 8
Czechia - 7
Switzerland - 7
Cyprus - 6
Hong Kong - 6
Hungary - 6
Mexico - 6
New Zealand - 6
Romania - 6
Argentina - 5
Pakistan - 5
Russia - 5
United Arab Emirates - 5
Egypt - 4
Nigeria - 4
Croatia - 3
Austria - 3
Finland - 3
Malaysia - 3
Serbia - 3
South Africa - 3
Taiwan - 3
Thailand - 3
Ukraine - 3
Bangladesh - 2
Indonesia - 2
Isle of Man - 2
Israel - 2
Malta - 2
Peru - 2
Saudi Arabia - 2
Slovenia - 2
Vietnam - 2
Bulgaria - 1
Armenia - 1
Chile - 1
China - 1
Dominica - 1
Kazakhstan - 1
Lebanon - 1
Lithuania - 1
Luxembourg - 1
Mauritius - 1
Morocco - 1
Philippines - 1
Qatar - 1
Slovakia - 1
South Korea - 1
Sri Lanka - 1
Uruguay - 1
Venezuela - 1
Zambia - 1
Zimbabwe - 1

A Fresh Start with Independence, which was published on 8 October 2025:

United Kingdom - 4160
United States - 171
Germany - 75
Spain - 75
France - 39
Ireland - 39
Australia - 32
Canada - 32
India - 31
Netherlands - 30
Italy - 28
Poland - 18
Sweden - 16
Norway - 15
Belgium - 14
Brazil - 14
New Zealand - 12
Greece - 11
Nigeria - 9
Hong Kong - 9
South Africa - 9
Türkiye - 9
Pakistan - 8
Switzerland - 8
United Arab Emirates - 8
Denmark - 7
Finland - 7
Japan - 7
Malta - 7
China - 6
Indonesia - 6
Philippines - 6
Portugal - 6
Saudi Arabia - 6
Singapore - 6
Austria - 5
Egypt - 5
Zambia - 5
Thailand - 4
Cyprus - 4
Mexico - 4
Qatar - 4
Romania - 4
Slovakia - 4
Argentina - 4
Bulgaria - 3
Luxembourg - 3
Malaysia - 3
Russia - 3
South Korea - 3
Sri Lanka - 3
Albania - 2
Bangladesh - 2
Bosnia & Herzegovina - 2
Chile - 2
Czechia - 2
Estonia - 2
Faroe Islands - 2
Ghana - 2
Isle of Man - 2
Jersey - 2
Serbia - 2
Slovenia - 2
Ukraine - 2
Antigua & Barbuda - 1
Botswana - 1
Colombia - 1
Croatia - 1
Curaçao - 1
Dominica - 1
Dominican Republic - 1
Greenland - 1
Guernsey - 1
Hungary - 1
Iran - 1
Israel - 1
Kazakhstan - 1
Latvia - 1
Lithuania - 1
Macao - 1
Montenegro - 1
Morocco - 1
Namibia - 1
Solomon Islands - 1
Taiwan - 1
Tanzania - 1
Trinidad & Tobago - 1
Vietnam - 1
Zimbabwe - 1

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