diff --git a/src/wp-includes/class-wp-scripts.php b/src/wp-includes/class-wp-scripts.php
index a30b09249fd52..b8f8d0ff6c9d7 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/class-wp-scripts.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/class-wp-scripts.php
@@ -452,7 +452,108 @@ public function do_item( $handle, $group = false ) {
 			$attr['data-wp-fetchpriority'] = $original_fetchpriority;
 		}
 
-		$tag  = $translations . $before_script;
+		/**
+		 * Filters data associated with a given script.
+		 *
+		 * Scripts may require data that is required for initialization or is essential
+		 * to have immediately available on page load. These are suitable use cases for
+		 * this data.
+		 *
+		 * The dynamic portion of the hook name, `$handle`, refers to the script handle.
+		 *
+		 * This is best suited to pass essential data that must be available to the script for
+		 * initialization or immediately on page load. It does not replace the REST API or
+		 * fetching data from the client.
+		 *
+		 * Example:
+		 *
+		 *     add_filter(
+		 *         'script_data_my-script-handle',
+		 *         function ( array $data ): array {
+		 *             $data['myConfig'] = array( 'key' => 'value' );
+		 *             return $data;
+		 *         }
+		 *     );
+		 *
+		 * If the filter returns no data (an empty array), nothing will be embedded in the page.
+		 *
+		 * The data for a given script, if provided, will be JSON serialized in a script
+		 * tag with an ID of the form `wp-script-data-{$handle}` and type `application/json`.
+		 *
+		 * The data can be read on the client with a pattern like this:
+		 *
+		 * Example:
+		 *
+		 *     const dataContainer = document.getElementById( 'wp-script-data-my-script-handle' );
+		 *     let data = {};
+		 *     if ( dataContainer ) {
+		 *         try {
+		 *             data = JSON.parse( dataContainer.textContent );
+		 *         } catch {}
+		 *     }
+		 *     // data.myConfig.key === 'value';
+		 *     initMyScriptWithData( data );
+		 *
+		 * @since 7.0.0
+		 *
+		 * @param array $data The data associated with the script.
+		 */
+		$script_data = apply_filters( "script_data_{$handle}", array() );
+
+		$script_data_tag = '';
+		if ( ! empty( $script_data ) ) {
+			/*
+			 * This data will be printed as JSON inside a script tag like this:
+			 *   <script type="application/json"></script>
+			 *
+			 * A script tag must be closed by a sequence beginning with `</`. It's impossible to
+			 * close a script tag without using `<`. We ensure that `<` is escaped and `/` can
+			 * remain unescaped, so `</script>` will be printed as `\u003C/script>`.
+			 *
+			 *   - JSON_HEX_TAG: All < and > are converted to \u003C and \u003E.
+			 *   - JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES: Don't escape /.
+			 *   - JSON_INVALID_UTF8_SUBSTITUTE: Substitute invalid UTF-8 sequences with U+FFFD (�)
+			 *     instead of failing. This avoids the overhead of `wp_json_encode()`'s fallback
+			 *     re-encoding and ensures consistent handling with the standard replacement character.
+			 *
+			 * If the page will use UTF-8 encoding, it's safe to print unescaped unicode:
+			 *
+			 *   - JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE: Encode multibyte Unicode characters literally (instead of as `\uXXXX`).
+			 *   - JSON_UNESCAPED_LINE_TERMINATORS: The line terminators are kept unescaped when
+			 *     JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE is supplied. It uses the same behaviour as it was
+			 *     before PHP 7.1 without this constant. Available as of PHP 7.1.0.
+			 *
+			 * The JSON specification requires encoding in UTF-8, so if the generated HTML page
+			 * is not encoded in UTF-8 then it's not safe to include those literals. They must
+			 * be escaped to avoid encoding issues.
+			 *
+			 * @see https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8259.html for details on encoding requirements.
+			 * @see https://www.php.net/manual/en/json.constants.php for details on these constants.
+			 * @see https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#script-data-state for details on script tag parsing.
+			 */
+			$json_encode_flags = JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_UNESCAPED_LINE_TERMINATORS | JSON_INVALID_UTF8_SUBSTITUTE;
+			if ( ! is_utf8_charset() ) {
+				$json_encode_flags = JSON_HEX_TAG | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_INVALID_UTF8_SUBSTITUTE;
+			}
+
+			/*
+			 * Return the data script tag as a string (third parameter false) rather than echoing it.
+			 * This allows it to be included with the script tag in the concatenated output.
+			 */
+			$script_data_tag = wp_print_inline_script_tag(
+				wp_json_encode(
+					$script_data,
+					$json_encode_flags
+				),
+				array(
+					'type' => 'application/json',
+					'id'   => "wp-script-data-{$handle}",
+				),
+				false
+			);
+		}
+
+		$tag  = $translations . $before_script . $script_data_tag;
 		$tag .= wp_get_script_tag( $attr );
 		$tag .= $after_script;
 
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/dependencies/scripts.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/dependencies/scripts.php
index a3c8b92695f4f..44f097eba68fb 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/dependencies/scripts.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/dependencies/scripts.php
@@ -4122,4 +4122,169 @@ public function test_wp_scripts_doing_it_wrong_for_missing_dependencies() {
 			'Expected _doing_it_wrong() notice to indicate missing dependencies for enqueued script.'
 		);
 	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Tests that script_data_{$handle} filter outputs JSON script tags before the script.
+	 *
+	 * @covers WP_Scripts::do_item
+	 */
+	public function test_script_data_filter_outputs_json_script_tag() {
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'test-script', '/test.js', array(), null );
+
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_test-script',
+			function ( $data ) {
+				$data['foo'] = 'bar';
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		$output = get_echo( 'wp_print_scripts' );
+
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( '<script type="application/json" id="wp-script-data-test-script">', $output );
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( '"foo":"bar"', $output );
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Tests that the script_data_{$handle} filter receives an empty array by default.
+	 *
+	 * @covers WP_Scripts::do_item
+	 */
+	public function test_script_data_filter_receives_empty_array() {
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'test-script', '/test.js', array(), null );
+
+		$filter_called = false;
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_test-script',
+			function ( $data ) use ( &$filter_called ) {
+				$filter_called = true;
+				$this->assertSame( array(), $data );
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		get_echo( 'wp_print_scripts' );
+
+		$this->assertTrue( $filter_called, 'Filter should have been called' );
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Tests that the script_data_{$handle} filter doesn't output anything for empty data.
+	 *
+	 * @covers WP_Scripts::do_item
+	 */
+	public function test_script_data_filter_no_output_for_empty_data() {
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'test-script', '/test.js', array(), null );
+
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_test-script',
+			function ( $data ) {
+				// Return empty array.
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		$output = get_echo( 'wp_print_scripts' );
+
+		// Should not contain data script tag.
+		$this->assertStringNotContainsString( 'wp-script-data-test-script', $output );
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Tests that the script_data_{$handle} filter is called for each enqueued script.
+	 *
+	 * @covers WP_Scripts::do_item
+	 */
+	public function test_script_data_filter_called_for_each_enqueued_script() {
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'script-1', '/script-1.js', array(), null );
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'script-2', '/script-2.js', array(), null );
+
+		$filter_calls = array();
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_script-1',
+			function ( $data ) use ( &$filter_calls ) {
+				$filter_calls[] = 'script-1';
+				$data['script'] = '1';
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_script-2',
+			function ( $data ) use ( &$filter_calls ) {
+				$filter_calls[] = 'script-2';
+				$data['script'] = '2';
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		$output = get_echo( 'wp_print_scripts' );
+
+		$this->assertSame( array( 'script-1', 'script-2' ), $filter_calls );
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( 'wp-script-data-script-1', $output );
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( 'wp-script-data-script-2', $output );
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( '"script":"1"', $output );
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( '"script":"2"', $output );
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Tests that the script_data_{$handle} filter is only called for enqueued scripts.
+	 *
+	 * @covers WP_Scripts::do_item
+	 */
+	public function test_script_data_filter_only_called_for_enqueued_scripts() {
+		wp_register_script( 'registered-only', '/registered-only.js', array(), null );
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'enqueued', '/enqueued.js', array(), null );
+
+		$filter_calls = array();
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_registered-only',
+			function ( $data ) use ( &$filter_calls ) {
+				$filter_calls[] = 'registered-only';
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_enqueued',
+			function ( $data ) use ( &$filter_calls ) {
+				$filter_calls[] = 'enqueued';
+				$data['test'] = 'value';
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		$output = get_echo( 'wp_print_scripts' );
+
+		$this->assertSame( array( 'enqueued' ), $filter_calls );
+		$this->assertStringNotContainsString( 'wp-script-data-registered-only', $output );
+		$this->assertStringContainsString( 'wp-script-data-enqueued', $output );
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Tests that the script_data_{$handle} filter outputs data before the script tag.
+	 *
+	 * @covers WP_Scripts::do_item
+	 */
+	public function test_script_data_filter_outputs_before_script() {
+		wp_enqueue_script( 'test-script', '/test.js', array(), null );
+
+		add_filter(
+			'script_data_test-script',
+			function ( $data ) {
+				$data['config'] = 'value';
+				return $data;
+			}
+		);
+
+		$output = get_echo( 'wp_print_scripts' );
+
+		// Find positions of data script tag and script tag.
+		$data_pos = strpos( $output, 'wp-script-data-test-script' );
+		$script_pos = strpos( $output, 'test-script-js' );
+
+		$this->assertNotFalse( $data_pos, 'Data script tag should be present' );
+		$this->assertNotFalse( $script_pos, 'Script tag should be present' );
+		$this->assertLessThan( $script_pos, $data_pos, 'Data script tag should come before script tag' );
+	}
 }