ABSTRACT 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.