• According to the best evidence available, it is fair to say that the UK as a whole has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe. And comparisons within the UK indicate that NI has lower breastfeeding rates than in Great Britain.
  • It is therefore fair to conclude that NI has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe.
  • However, data about breastfeeding rates varies significantly by country and all such comparisons come with significant caveats.
  • The available data within the UK is also imperfect, and  England, Scotland, Wales and NI all measure breastfeeding rates in different ways. 
  • As part of our research into this claim, we have noticed that an out-of-date (and inaccurate) statistic has been cited in the consultation document for Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon’s Private Member’s Bill in support of local breastfeeding.

In a press release published on 4 December 2025 about a Private Member’s Bill to support breastfeeding that she is developing, Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon said:

“With the north having some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Western Europe I believe that this legislation can help to change that picture and it is modelled on similar legislation that was implemented in Scotland for the same purpose.”

In a further press release, published on 18 December, Ms Dillon claimed that:

“The island of Ireland has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe, so there is a clear need to promote the many significant health and social benefits from breastfeeding that exist for a mother and her child and to implement the support services required.”

These two claims are slightly different. This fact check will focus on Northern Ireland, and whether it has the lowest breastfeeding rates in Western Europe or simply in Europe.

These claims are supported by evidence, albeit the available evidence is not of the highest quality.

International comparisons of breastfeeding rates are patchy at best, and rely on data that is not necessarily directly comparable.

However, based on the best information we have identified, it is fair to say that the UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe.

Data comparing breastfeeding rates between the four constituent nations of the UK is also imperfect, although it is significantly better than the figures involved in international comparisons.

Up to and including 2010, a comprehensive survey of breastfeeding rates took place in the UK every five years, which allowed good comparisons between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and which indicated that NI had the lowest breastfeeding rates overall.

Since then, the best available data comes from each of the four nations’ own statistical publications. According to the most recent comparable data that FactCheckNI could identify, which covers babies born in 2022-23, Northern Ireland continues to have lower breastfeeding rates than in England, Scotland and Wales.

Therefore, given there is evidence to indicate that the UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe, and that NI has the lowest breastfeeding rates in the UK, it is entirely fair to conclude that NI itself has among the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe.

It should also be noted that these claims were made in support of a Private Member’s Bill being moved by Ms Dillon. The consultation document for this Bill claims that only 13% of local babies continue to be breastfed after age six weeks.

Although this fact check is focused on how NI compares with Europe, it is important to note that this figure in the consultation document relies on outdated data and is incorrect. The most recent figures for NI, which cover babies born in 2022-23, indicate that 36.9% of babies are being breastfed to some degree at six weeks while 30.9% continue to receive some breastfeeding by three months.

Read on for a deep dive into piecemeal datasets and what can be concluded from such data. If anyone knows of any further – and, indeed, better – data to make clearer comparisons on this topic, please get in touch.

  • Source

FactCheckNI contacted Ms Dillon about her claim but, at the time of writing, had received no reply.

  • Terms of the claim

Between her two similar claims, Ms Dillon mentioned first Western Europe and then Europe. This claim will focus on Europe as a whole – as we have written before, Western Europe is a fuzzy concept.

More importantly, and as will become clear, given the lack of data available for trans-European comparisons, there is little practical difference between looking at Europe or Western Europe, in any case.

  • Data issues

There appears to be no simple, straightforward way to compare breastfeeding rates between different countries.

The way this data is recorded in different jurisdictions can vary greatly.

Some countries have regular, systematic annual monitoring of breastfeeding rates, such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Others monitor breastfeeding much more infrequently (Switzerland carries out a national survey once per decade).

Indeed, some countries do not monitor this data at all (for example, Andorra) meaning that certain European countries are excluded by default from international discussions on this matter.

Furthermore, breastfeeding is not simply a binary yes or no situation. Children might be exclusively breastfed, they might only be fed formula milk, or they could take a combination of the two.

The age of the baby is also highly relevant. As will become clear below, breastfeeding rates decline as babies get older. Some of the milestones used in data include breastfeeding immediately after birth, on discharge from hospital, aged six weeks and aged six months (these are not set in stone and, as will be seen below, the milestones at which breastfeeding data is collected vary within the UK let alone among different countries).

  • UK and Europe

International comparisons on breastfeeding rates are tricky, but some data does exist.

A 2018 study on children’s health by the Nuffield Trust compiled data from several European countries, with the addition of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.

It found that the percentage of infants fed exclusively with breastmilk up to the age of five months varied significantly between nations, with the UK bottom of the list.

Figure 1 – source: Nuffield Trust

For infants under the age of 6 months, the UK and Greece both have an exclusive breastfeeding rate of 1%, this rate is remarkably low when compared with Portugal’s 34% exclusive breastfeeding rate at 6 months in 2003.

On a side note, one indication of the broad lack of data availability on breastfeeding can be seen in the various different years from which Figure 1 draws its information. This report was published in March 2018 but, as can be seen above, takes data from as early as 1999.

Beyond this, FactCheckNI was able to find very little data comparing breastfeeding rates between different nations in Europe. Another comparative study was published in 2019, but the UK is not one of the 11 countries featured in its dataset.

The graph below shows the percentage of babies that are exclusively breastfed at different age milestones in the 11 different countries. Note, once again, that the individual nations with data available at each milestone varies significantly. In the case of the Republic of Ireland, for instance, relevant information was only available at birth.

Figure 2 – source: Study published in the National Library of Medicine

One notable omission from both those studies is France. According to the 2021 French National Perinatal Survey, the exclusive breastfeeding incidence rate in maternity wards was 56.3%. This is slightly (0.1 percentage points) higher than Northern Ireland’s exclusive breastfeeding incidence rate in 2021 (more details on this below).

Taken altogether, this is not a compelling amount of information and any comparisons between different nations should take that into account.

However, based on the data that is available, it is safe to say that the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe.

This is also the position of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). In a statement first published in 2017, but updated as recently as December 2025, the RCPCH said:

“The UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe. There are limited data available to compare trends in breastfeeding internationally, particularly at age 6-8 weeks when current UK data are recorded. An analysis of global breastfeeding prevalence found that in the UK only 34% of babies are receiving some breast milk at 6 months compared with 49% in the US and 71% in Norway.”

The study cited by the RCPCH to back up the statistics in this quotation was published in the Lancet. Unfortunately, FactCheckNI does not have access to the details of this study – but we have provided the link to it for the sake of completeness.

As always, FactCheckNI welcomes information about further sources of data that support or challenge our research and conclusions.

  • Local data

So, the UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe (according to the available data). Where does NI sit within the UK?

The UK used to conduct a national survey on breastfeeding every five years. This took place eight times, beginning in 1975 and with the final survey taking place in 2010.

Newer figures are available – more details on that are laid out below – but first it is worth examining the findings of the 2010 Infant Feeding Survey (IFS) because, while it is now 15 years old, it is a comprehensive piece of work compared with more recent data – and, again in contrast with more recent data, the IFS uses standardisation in data collection methods and terminology allowing clearer comparisons between different parts of the UK.

The 2010 NHS IFS survey reports that initial breastfeeding rates (or breastfeeding incidence) at this time, i.e. the percentage of infants who were breastfed in the first 48 hours of life, including babies who were put to the breast at least once or fed expressed milk, were as follows:

  • 83% in England
  • 74% in Scotland
  • 71% in Wales
  • 64% in Northern Ireland

The study also includes data for exclusive breastfeeding rates of infants at 6 weeks, i.e. the percentage of infants fed only breastmilk and no other liquids/solids for their first 6 weeks of life:

  • 24% in England
  • 22% in Scotland
  • 17% in Wales
  • 13% in Northern Ireland

Rates of exclusive breastfeeding tend to decline as babies get older and, as can be seen in the graph below, according to data from the 2010 IFS such breastfeeding rates in NI tend to lag behind other parts of the UK.

Figure 3 – source: 2010 IFS

Based on the findings of the most recent IFS, it seems clear that – at the time, at least – Northern Ireland had the lowest breastfeeding rates in the UK.

However, that was 15 years ago. Given the broad lack of data, it remains useful – to illustrate this point, Unicef UK’s headline data on breastfeeding is still taken from the 2010 IFS – but it is important to look at what other information is available.

  • Newer local data

Northern Ireland had a ten-year strategy, Breastfeeding – A Great Start, that ran between 2013 and 2023.

Its final report was published in November 2024, and states that: 

“Despite huge efforts to promote and support breastfeeding across health and social care trusts, public health initiatives, policy development and community/voluntary support, the increase in breastfeeding rates over the past ten years has been modest.”

The breastfeeding strategy contained two main targets: that, by 2025, 70% of all infants will be breastfed by one week after birth and 40% of all infants will still be breastfed at 6 months.

The final report found that neither of these targets were met and, according to the most recent year at the time of publication for which there was a full set of data (which related to babies born in 2021):

  • 43% of all infants born in 2021 were breastfed 10-14 days after birth
  • 22.3% of all infants born in 2021 were still breastfed at 6 months

The most recent data that FactCheckNI could find – if you know of anything more relevant, please get in touch – available comes from the Public Health Agency (PHA), which produces annual data-based reports on children’s health.

According to Children’s Health in Northern Ireland 2023/24, published in April 2025:

  • In 2023/24, just over half of live infants (53.6%) were breastfed (total or partial feeding) at discharge 

However, there is limited further information about babies born in 2023-24. This is because of a natural lag in data gathering for individual babies – data about whether a child is breastfed at birth is known just after birth, whereas equivalent data about whether they are still breastfed at 12 months can only be collected a year later, for obvious reasons.

Instead, the 2023-24 report contains more comprehensive data about children born in 2022-23:

Figure 4 – PHA

Note that, in calculating these figures, any cases where the breastfeeding status is unknown has been completely removed from the calculation. This is important to know because this is not standard practice everywhere, as we shall see.

How does this compare to other parts of the UK?

  • United Kingdom (and its different methodologies)

For England, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes annual figures of breastfeeding that focus on the proportion of babies who are breastfed between six and eight weeks after birth.

Although more recent data from England is available, given that the last complete year for data in NI is 2022-23, the best comparison are the findings from that year – which state that, aged between six and eight weeks, 31.5% of all babies were exclusively breastfed and a further 17.7% were partially breastfed. In total, 49.2% were either totally or partially breastfed.

By comparing these percentages with the data in Figure 4, above, we see that this provides evidence that breastfeeding rates in England are higher than they are in NI – where at age six weeks 26.6% of babies were exclusively breastfed and a further 10.3% partially so.

Furthermore, the breakdown of the figures in England include children whose breastfeeding status is unknown within the calculation: 40.7% of all children were not breastfed at all while 11.1% of child breastfeeding statuses are unknown. This means that the gap in breastfeeding rates between England and NI is actually bigger than the percentages indicate.

In Scotland, as with England, more recent data is available but for the best-possible comparison this check will focus on data from 2022-23.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes annual reports on infant feeding statistics. The findings for 2022-23 show that:

  • 66% of all babies received some breastfeeding. This is higher than in NI, where 51.8% of babies had received some breastfeeding before discharge.
  • At the time of the Health Visitor first visit (around 10-14 days of age) 57% of babies were receiving any breastfeeding – 37% exclusively breastfed and 19% partial. Again, this is higher than NI (32.3% exclusive and 13.5% partial).
  • At age 6-8 weeks, 47% of babies were still being breastfed, 32% exclusively and 15% partial. This is also higher than in NI, where the 26.6% were exclusively breastfed and 10.3% partially so.

The PHS report does not include data at three months, six months or 12 months. Its next datapoint is for 13-15 months. Regardless, it is fair to conclude that breastfeeding rates in NI are lower than they are in Scotland.

In Wales, StatsWales provides varied annual statistics relating to children. Unlike in England, Scotland and NI, these figures are provided by calendar year rather than financial year. This check will focus on Welsh data from 2022.

The Welsh data also appears to only calculate a single percentage for all breastfeeding, rather than delineating data into exclusive and partial feeding. For the purposes of this check, we will compare the Welsh percentages to the sum of exclusive and partial feeding in NI.

According to StatsWales, in 2022 at birth 63.3% of children were breastfed at birth (compared with 51.8% in NI), at six weeks 38.7% were breastfed (36.9% in NI), and at six months 26.2% were breastfed (NI was 25.6%).

Although these figures are much closer than in comparisons with England and Scotland, there is evidence to support the fact that breastfeeding rates in NI are lower than those in Wales.

Taken altogether, it is fair to say that Northern Ireland has the lowest breastfeeding rates of any nation within the UK.

Combined with the evidence indicating that the UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe, we can conclude that Northern Ireland has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe.

  • Private Members’ Bill

Ms Dillon is in fact preparing a Private Member’s Bill to boost breastfeeding in Northern Ireland. The consultation document for that Bill states:

“This proposed Bill, being brought forward by Linda Dillon MLA, seeks to encourage and protect the practice of breastfeeding (including the expressing of breast milk), by safeguarding individuals from discrimination or obstruction when feeding their child in a public space. The Bill would do this by: (i) creating an offence of intentionally preventing or discouraging breastfeeding in public; (ii) requiring businesses and service providers to ensure their premises are breastfeeding-friendly; and (iii) introducing appropriate penalties for discriminatory behaviour.”

The consultation document does reference some breastfeeding data for NI – citing Unicef’s Baby Friendly Initiative when it claims that:

“In the north of Ireland, breastfeeding rates remain among the lowest in Western Europe, with just over half of infants exclusively breastfed at birth and only 13% continuing beyond six weeks.”

Unicef’s data source is the 2010 IFS but, as can be seen from Figure 4 above, more recent information shows that local breastfeeding rates have already increased and that, according to the most recent data, 36.9% (26.6% exclusively so) of babies are being breastfed to some degree at six weeks while 30.9% (23.0% exclusively) continue to receive some breastfeeding by three months. We have contacted the MLA about this mistake in the consultation document.