Introduction

This annual statistical publication provides information on the uptake of school meals (free and paid for). In previous years, this information came from a survey (the Healthy Living Survey) carried out in February each year of all publicly funded schools in Scotland. An alternative method for estimating school meal uptake rates was developed and implemented in 2025, following consultation with users. This method uses pre-existing data on school meals from Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics and pupil numbers from the School staff and pupil census to create an estimate of school meal uptake across the financial year.

This report presents the trends in school meal uptake at Scotland level. Breakdowns by local authority are available in the supplementary statistics. Historical information on school meal uptake back to 2006 from the Healthy Living Survey is also available in the supplementary statistics.

An Official Statistics in Development Publication for Scotland

These statistics are official statistics in development. Official statistics in development may be new or existing statistics, and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This data is published as 'official statistics in development' because they are a new statistics series and are still in development. They are published to inform users about school meal uptake and to enable user feedback, as well as further methodological development. The developmental status of these statistics will be under regular review and may be subject to change in the future. For details see the ‘Data and methodology’ chapter. If you have any feedback, please contact school.stats@gov.scot.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.