List of first ministers of Scotland facts for kids

• Top left: Donald Dewar was the first ever first minister of Scotland.
• Top right: Alex Salmond was the first SNP politician to serve as first minister.
• Bottom left: Nicola Sturgeon was the first female and longest serving first minister.
• Bottom right: Humza Yousaf is the current, youngest and first minority ethnic first minister.

The First Minister of Scotland is the leader of the Scottish Government, Scotland's devolved government. The First Minister is responsible for the exercise of functions by the Cabinet of the Scottish Government; policy development and coordination; relationships with the rest of the United Kingdom, Europe and the wider world. The First Minister is a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and is nominated by the Scottish Parliament before being officially appointed by the monarch.

Currently, the First Minister is Humza Yousaf of the Scottish National Party (SNP), who succeeded Nicola Sturgeon in March 2023 following her resignation in February 2023. Yousaf has led the Government of the 6th Scottish Parliament since 2023. Sturgeon, and before that, Alex Salmond, previously led the governments of the 3rd and 4th Scottish Parliaments which was first elected in 2007 as a minority government, and re-elected in 2011, where they formed the first majority government in the Scottish Parliament.

Sturgeon is the longest-serving First Minister, having surpassed Salmond on 25 May 2022. Salmond in turn spent a total of 7 and a half years in the role. Donald Dewar was the first person to hold the position. Henry McLeish is the shortest-serving First Minister, having served in the role for 1 year and 12 days.

List of First Ministers of Scotland

The parties shown are those to which the first ministers belonged to at the time they held office, and the constituencies shown are those they represented while in office.

Political parties

     Scottish Labour Party     Scottish Liberal Democrats     Scottish National Party      Scottish Conservatives

Status

      Background and italics indicates caretaker First Minister

Legend

No.	Portrait	Name (birth–death) constituency	Term of office			Party		Election (parliament)	Government	Deputy	Monarch (reign)	Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Tenure
1		Donald Dewar (1937–2000) MSP for Glasgow Anniesland Premiership	17 May 1999	11 October 2000†	1 year, 147 days		Labour	1999 (1st)	Dewar	Jim Wallace	Elizabeth II (1952–2022)
(—)		Jim Wallace (born 1954) MSP for Orkney	11 October 2000	27 October 2000	16 days		Liberal Democrat	— (1st)	Caretaker	Vacant
2		Henry McLeish (born 1948) MSP for Central Fife Premiership	27 October 2000	8 November 2001	1 year, 12 days		Labour	— (1st)	McLeish	Jim Wallace
(—)		Jim Wallace (born 1954) MSP for Orkney	8 November 2001	27 November 2001	19 days		Liberal Democrat	— (1st)	Caretaker	Vacant
3		Jack McConnell (born 1960) MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw Premiership	27 November 2001	16 May 2007	5 years, 170 days		Labour	— (1st)	McConnell I	Jim Wallace
								2003 (2nd)	McConnell II
										Nicol Stephen
4		Alex Salmond (born 1954) MSP for Gordon (until 2011) MSP for Aberdeenshire East (from 2011) Premiership	17 May 2007	18 November 2014	7 years, 185 days		SNP	2007 (3rd)	Salmond I	Nicola Sturgeon
								2011 (4th)	Salmond II
5		Nicola Sturgeon (born 1970) MSP for Glasgow Southside Premiership	20 November 2014	28 March 2023	8 years, 128 days		SNP	— (4th)	Sturgeon I	John Swinney
								2016 (5th)	Sturgeon II
								2021 (6th)	Sturgeon III
											Charles III (2022–present)
6		Humza Yousaf (born 1985) MSP for Glasgow Pollok Premiership	29 March 2023	Incumbent	1 year, 29 days		SNP	— (6th)	Yousaf	Shona Robison

Timeline of Scottish first ministers