Neurological Conditions: estimated prevalence in Scotland in 2026
This report presents the number of people registered with a general practice in Scotland and diagnosed with one or more of 25 specific neurological conditions in 2026.
3. Findings
3.1 General Practice Dataset
Figure 1 shows the number of people registered with a general practice in Scotland and diagnosed with the specified neurological conditions. It also shows the number of people with any neurological condition, representing 18.2% of all registered patients.
Figure 1: Nearly 1.1 million people registered with a general practice in Scotland have a diagnosed neurological condition
Number of people with selected neurological conditions recorded in general practices in Scotland on 1 May 2026.
|
Condition |
Number of People |
% of registered patients |
|
All patients registered with a general practice in Scotland [1] |
6,010,834 |
100% |
|
Acquired Brain Injury |
378,828 |
6.3% |
|
- Acquired Brain Injury - Trauma |
233,528 |
3.9% |
|
- Acquired Brain Injury - Vascular |
121,225 |
2.0% |
|
- Acquired Brain Injury - Infection |
33,678 |
0.6% |
|
- Acquired Brain Injury - Other |
2,681 |
<0.1% |
|
Ataxia |
3,846 |
0.1% |
|
Brain Tumour |
12,769 |
0.2% |
|
Cerebral Palsy |
9,152 |
0.2% |
|
Cluster Headache |
11,068 |
0.2% |
|
Corticobasal Degeneration |
74 |
<0.1% |
|
Degenerative Spinal Disease |
26,646 |
0.4% |
|
Dystonia |
12,938 |
0.2% |
|
Epilepsy |
83,558 |
1.4% |
|
Essential Tremor |
17,458 |
0.3% |
|
Functional Neurological Disorder |
12,958 |
0.2% |
|
Huntington's Disease |
745 |
<0.1% |
|
ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome |
30,513 |
0.5% |
|
Migraine |
425,096 |
7.1% |
|
Motor Neurone Disease |
753 |
<0.1% |
|
Multiple Sclerosis (including CIS) |
18,048 |
0.3% |
|
Muscle Disorders |
4,158 |
0.1% |
|
- Muscle Disorders - Dermatomyositis |
776 |
<0.1% |
|
- Muscle Disorders - Multiple System Atrophy |
160 |
<0.1% |
|
- Muscle Disorders - Muscular Dystrophies |
2,795 |
<0.1% |
|
- Muscle Disorders - Polymyositis |
481 |
<0.1% |
|
Myasthenia |
2,934 |
<0.1% |
|
Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder |
184 |
<0.1% |
|
Parkinson's Disease |
11,612 |
0.2% |
|
Peripheral Neuropathy |
203,630 |
3.4% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Toxins |
297 |
<0.1% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Diabetes |
6,700 |
0.1% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Other Diseases |
157 |
<0.1% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Infection |
2,592 |
<0.1% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Hereditary / Idiopathic |
3,538 |
0.1% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Mechanical |
137,922 |
2.3% |
|
- Peripheral Neuropathy - Other |
63,272 |
1.1% |
|
Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) |
16 |
<0.1% |
|
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) |
210 |
<0.1% |
|
Spina Bifida / Hydrocephalus |
10,983 |
0.2% |
|
Tourette's (tic disorders) |
5,592 |
0.1% |
|
Any Neurological Condition [2] |
1,092,162 |
18.2% |
[1] Excluding registered patients from nine practices whose data is not included.
[2] The rows do not add up to the ‘any neurological condition’ total because individuals might be diagnosed with more than one condition.
The most common neurological conditions with a general practice recorded diagnosis are migraine, acquired brain injury, peripheral neuropathy and epilepsy. It is important to note that prevalence (the number of people diagnosed with a condition) is one element of the Burden of Disease. Other elements are disease severity and premature death, which will vary across these conditions but are out of scope of this report.
Individuals are counted against each condition for which they have a diagnosis recorded. Some individuals could have a diagnosis recorded for more than one condition. Therefore, the condition sub-totals should not be added up as their total will not represent the number of unique individuals with a diagnosis. However, the final row shows the number of people in this dataset with Any Neurological Condition, representing 18.2% of All Registered Patients shown in the first row.
It should be noted that the number of people registered in general practices in Scotland is approximately 500,000 larger than the Scottish population as estimated by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) (PHS, 2026a). This is due to list size inflation caused by factors such as people not de-registering with their general practice after moving outside the UK or not registering with a new general practice if moving within the UK. For example, students could fall into either category.
3.2 Strengths and Limitations
Comprehensive coverage. PHS describes the PCIS as offering an interim technical solution to replicate the aggregate data extraction function formerly provided by the SPIRE system, which will be in place until a robust national data platform is available. This report confirms that PCIS aggregate data extracts can already provide near comprehensive coverage of general practice registered patients. The 99.4% coverage in this report represents a major improvement on the 72.7% coverage in the 2022 report, and is encouraging for future data extracts.
General practice recorded prevalence versus population prevalence. The methodology and metadata for the most recent PHS annual prevalence publication in July 2025 (PHS, 2025b) noted that general practice disease prevalence data do not necessarily equate to disease prevalence as defined by epidemiologists (who study disease in specific populations). Differences could arise if patients with the condition do not attend general practice, or attend but are not diagnosed. It also notes that the accuracy of results is dependent on good computerised read coding by practices.
Recovery from neurological conditions. For all conditions in this dataset (except epilepsy) a patient is included if they have ever had a read code for a certain condition (a read code is a type of clinical code used in general practice systems to record medical information about a patient in a standardised way). For epilepsy, a patient is included if they have a diagnosis and no subsequent ‘resolved’ code. For some other neurological conditions, such as acquired brain injury or migraine, recovery from or management of the condition is possible. Therefore, the presence of a relevant code in the general practice dataset might not indicate a current or ongoing condition. As such the estimates from the data extract used for this report could overstate current prevalence and future healthcare need.
Re-diagnosis of neurological conditions. This analysis could not take account of re-diagnosis: for example people initially diagnosed with one condition (such as Parkinson’s Disease) who are subsequently re-diagnosed with a different one (such as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). As noted earlier, individuals could be counted more than once if they have a diagnosis for more than one condition.