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Publication - Statistics

Mental Health Inpatient Census 2025 - Parts 1 and 2

Published
24 February 2026
Directorate
Population Health Directorate, +1 more … Mental Health Directorate

Annual publication of data collected in the Inpatient Census covering patients in mental health, addiction and learning disability beds who are funded by NHS Scotland at a point in time.

Part of

Supporting documents

In 2025 the number of inpatients and beds decreased by 3% compared to 2024. The number of beds have been decreasing since the first census in 2014.

Figure 1: Number of beds, patients and bed occupancy rates, 2014 – 2025

Psychiatric, addiction or learning disability inpatients, NHS Scotland, 2014 – 2025.

Figure 1: Graph showing the number of beds, number of patients and the occupancy rate of Mental Health, addictions and learning disabilities beds in NHS Scotlan, 2014 – 2025. The number of beds has declined from 4532 in 2014 to 3271 in 2025 while the number of patients declined from 3909 to 2941. Occupancy rates were 86% in 2014 and 90% in 2025.

  • Patients were most likely to be in an Acute ward (34% of all patients)
  • 11% of adult inpatients had a diagnosis of a learning disability or autism.
  • 58% of adult inpatients also had a long-term physical health condition.
  • There were 51 patients under 18 years old in available beds.
  • Forensic services primarily managed 438 patients at the 2025 census.
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