The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) continues to rise globally; however, the true proportion of paediatric IBD patients remains unknown. We conducted an all-age, multiparameter, population-based search using capture-recapture methodology to identify all IBD cases to August 31, 2018 within Lothian, a defined health board and the largest of the 3 within South-East Scotland. Individual case note validation was performed for all 24,601 possible IBD cases according to internationally recognised diagnostic and age criteria. Of 7035 confirmed point-prevalent patients, 560 were classified as A1 age phenotype at diagnosis, constituting just 8% of all cases. Ninety-nine patients were less than 17 years of age on August 31, 2018, constituting only 1.4% of all point-prevalent cases. These results demonstrate the true contemporary proportion of prevalent paediatric IBD patients is strikingly low, reflecting compounding prevalence in adult practice and the near-normal life expectancy of this chronic, incurable condition.