Homeless children in Scotland statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Any analysis undertaken on how many children are made homeless in Scotland every day and also to supply any figures we have on this.

Response

The Scottish Government collects record level data on homelessness applications made to local authorities in Scotland. This includes information such as the date of application and assessment, as well as assessment outcome. Analysis at individual day level has not been undertaken as this would be of limited value due to natural fluctuation in numbers on a daily, monthly or even quarterly basis.

The Scottish Government Homelessness in Scotland statistical series provides the total number of children associated with households that have been assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness in a given period. In 2024-25, there were 15,046 children.

These figures are published six-monthly, with the most recent data available for 2024-25. The data can be found in Table 16 of Main_tables Homelessness in Scotland 2024-25.

It should be noted that there may be an element of duplication within these figures e.g. if the same household is assessed as homeless more than once.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.