Councils of Scotland | |
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Category | Administrative unit |
Location | Scotland |
Number | 32 Councils |
Populations | 21,400 (Orkney Islands) – 593,200 (Glasgow) |
Areas | 21 square miles (54 km2) (Dundee) - 11,838 square miles (30,660 km2) (Highland) |
Government |
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Subdivisions |
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This article is part of a series within UK politics on the |
Politics of Scotland |
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Category · Scotland portal |
For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas" (Scottish Gaelic : comhairlean), which are all governed by single-tier authorities designated as "councils". [1] They have the option under the Local Government (Gaelic Names) (Scotland) Act 1997 [2] of being known (but not re-designated) as a "comhairle" when opting for a Gaelic name; only Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Council of the Western Isles) has chosen this option, whereas the Highland Council (Comhairle na Gàidhealtachd) has adopted its Gaelic form alongside its English equivalent informally.
The council areas have been in existence since 1 April 1996, under the provisions of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Historically, Scotland was divided into 34 counties or shires. Although these no longer have any administrative function, they are still used to some extent in Scotland for cultural and geographical purposes, and some of the current council areas are named after them. There are also a number of other administrative divisions, some of which are handled by joint boards of the councils.
At the most local level Scotland is divided into civil parishes, which are now used only for statistical purposes such as the census. The lowest level of administrative subdivision are the communities, which may elect community councils.
Traditionally burghs have been the key unit of the local government of Scotland, being highly autonomous entities, with rights to representation in the old Parliament of Scotland. Even after the Acts of Union 1707, burghs continued to be the principal subdivision. Until 1889 administration was on a burgh and parish basis.
The years following 1889 saw the introduction of a hierarchy of local government administration comprising counties, counties of cities, large burghs and small burghs.
With effect from 16 May 1975 and until 31 March 1996 the local government divisions of Scotland consisted of an upper tier of regions each containing a lower tier of districts except for the single-tier island council areas . Since 1996 there has only been a single tier of government, and the former island council areas are of equal status to the other councils.
Rank | Council area | Population [3] | Electors [4] | Area (km2) [5] | Density (per km2) |
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1 | Glasgow City | 626,410 | 462,286 | 174.7 | 3,586 |
2 | City of Edinburgh | 518,500 | 367,762 | 263.4 | 1,969 |
3 | Fife | 371,910 | 280,622 | 1,325 | 281 |
4 | North Lanarkshire | 340,180 | 256,174 | 469.9 | 724 |
5 | South Lanarkshire | 319,020 | 248,875 | 1,772 | 180 |
6 | Aberdeenshire | 261,470 | 202,194 | 6,313 | 41 |
7 | Highland | 235,540 | 184,697 | 25,657 | 9 |
8 | Aberdeen City | 227,560 | 163,196 | 185.7 | 1,225 |
9 | West Lothian | 182,140 | 137,614 | 427.7 | 426 |
10 | Renfrewshire | 177,790 | 133,295 | 261.5 | 680 |
11 | Falkirk | 160,340 | 122,471 | 297.4 | 539 |
12 | Perth and Kinross | 151,290 | 114,936 | 5,286 | 29 |
13 | Dumfries and Galloway | 148,790 | 116,593 | 6,427 | 23 |
14 | Dundee City | 148,750 | 112,513 | 59.83 | 2,486 |
15 | North Ayrshire | 135,280 | 107,763 | 885.4 | 153 |
16 | East Ayrshire | 121,840 | 94,657 | 1,262 | 97 |
17 | Angus | 116,040 | 89,652 | 2,182 | 53 |
18 | Scottish Borders | 115,270 | 91,919 | 4,732 | 24 |
19 | South Ayrshire | 112,550 | 90,300 | 1,222 | 92 |
20 | East Dunbartonshire | 108,330 | 85,410 | 174.5 | 621 |
21 | East Lothian | 105,790 | 80,874 | 679.2 | 156 |
22 | Moray | 95,520 | 73,284 | 2,238 | 43 |
23 | East Renfrewshire | 95,170 | 71,618 | 174.2 | 546 |
24 | Stirling | 94,330 | 68,778 | 2,187 | 43 |
25 | Midlothian | 91,340 | 70,587 | 353.7 | 258 |
26 | West Dunbartonshire | 89,130 | 68,826 | 158.8 | 561 |
27 | Argyll and Bute | 86,260 | 68,271 | 6,909 | 12 |
28 | Inverclyde | 78,150 | 59,941 | 160.5 | 487 |
29 | Clackmannanshire | 51,400 | 39,186 | 159.0 | 323 |
30 | Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) | 26,830 | 21,874 | 3,059 | 9 |
31 | Shetland | 22,990 | 17,837 | 1,468 | 16 |
32 | Orkney | 22,190 | 17,135 | 988.8 | 22 |
Scotland has several other administrative divisions, some of which are handled by joint boards of the councils.
There are several joint boards for electoral registration and the purposes of property valuation for assessing council tax and rates. [6]
Joint board area | Council areas |
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Ayrshire | East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire |
Borders | Scottish Borders |
Central Scotland | Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling |
Dumfries and Galloway | Dumfries and Galloway |
Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute | Argyll and Bute, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire |
Fife | Fife |
Grampian | Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray |
Glasgow | Glasgow |
Highlands and Western Isles | Highland and Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) |
Lanarkshire | North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire |
Lothian | East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, West Lothian |
Orkney and Shetland | Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands |
Renfrewshire | East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire |
Tayside | Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross |
See also NHS Scotland
Until 1 April 2014 the towns of Cambuslang and Rutherglen were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area despite being located in South Lanarkshire. They are now part of NHS Lanarkshire.
The Scottish Government has created seven "Regional Transport Partnerships", for establishing transport policy in the regions. They broadly follow council area groupings.
RTP area | Council areas |
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NESTRANS | Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire |
TACTRAN | Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Stirling |
HITRANS | Argyll and Bute (except Helensburgh and Lomond), Highland, Moray, Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles), Orkney |
ZetTrans | Shetland |
SEStran | Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Midlothian, Fife, Scottish Borders, West Lothian |
SWESTRANS | Dumfries and Galloway |
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport | Argyll and Bute (Helensburgh and Lomond only), West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Glasgow, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire |
In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), Scotland is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKM", which is subdivided as follows: [7]
NUTS 1 | Code | NUTS 2 | Code | NUTS 3 | Code |
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Scotland | UKM | Eastern Scotland | UKM2 | Angus and Dundee | UKM21 |
![]() ![]() | Clackmannanshire and Fife | UKM22 | |||
East Lothian and Midlothian | UKM23 | ||||
Scottish Borders | UKM24 | ||||
Edinburgh | UKM25 | ||||
Falkirk | UKM26 | ||||
Perth and Kinross, and Stirling | UKM27 | ||||
West Lothian | UKM28 | ||||
South Western Scotland | UKM3 | East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, and Helensburgh and Lomond | UKM31 | ||
Dumfries and Galloway | UKM32 | ||||
East and North Ayrshire mainland | UKM33 | ||||
Glasgow | UKM34 | ||||
Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, and Renfrewshire | UKM35 | ||||
North Lanarkshire | UKM36 | ||||
South Ayrshire | UKM37 | ||||
South Lanarkshire | UKM38 | ||||
North Eastern Scotland | UKM5 | Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire | UKM50 | ||
Highlands and Islands | UKM6 | Caithness and Sutherland, and Ross and Cromarty | UKM61 | ||
Inverness, Nairn, Moray, and Badenoch and Strathspey | UKM62 | ||||
Lochaber, Skye and Lochalsh, Arran and Cumbrae, and Argyll and Bute (except Helensburgh and Lomond) | UKM63 | ||||
Eilean Siar (Western Isles) | UKM64 | ||||
Orkney Islands | UKM65 | ||||
Shetland Islands | UKM66 |
The current land registration system in Scotland divides Scotland into 33 Registration Counties, [8] each coming into effect on various dates between 1981 and 2003. These areas in most cases resemble those of the pre-1975 administrative counties with Glasgow being the only current city to form a registration county.
Sheriffdoms are judicial areas. Since 1 January 1975, these have been six in number: [9]
The Lieutenancy areas of Scotland are the areas used for the ceremonial lord-lieutenants, the monarch's representatives. The areas are similar to the Historic Counties and the Registration Counties, but are not identical to either. Most notably, the four cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow form separate areas from the surrounding countryside, with the Lord Provost of each city acting ex officio as the lord-lieutenant.
The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 resulted in the merger of local police and fire services on 1 April 2013 to form the Police Service of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Seirbheis Phoilis na h-Alba) and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS, Scottish Gaelic: Seirbheis Smàlaidh agus Teasairginn na h-Alba).
Prior to 1975 policing was the responsibility of the Cities and Burghs of Scotland (see List of burghs in Scotland). Between 1975 and 2013 Scotland was subdivided into Police and fire service areas based on the regions and districts and island council areas that were also formed in 1975. The police and fire service regions used between 1975 and 2013 are listed below.
Scotland is divided into 871 civil parishes which often resemble same-named but legally different ecclesiastical parishes. Although they have had no administrative function since 1930, they still exist and are still used for statistical purposes such as the census. Many former civil parish areas also continued to form registration districts until 1 January 2007. Many boundary changes have occurred over the years and an area currently derived from an old parish might no longer contain a place previously within that parish. Similarly, county boundaries (as still used for land registration) have also changed over the years such that a parish mentioned historically (generally before the 1860s) as being in one county (or sometimes two due to straddling a border) might now be in a neighbouring county and consequentially in a different succeeding council area.
For most administrative purposes, the base level of sub-division in Scotland is now that of communities, which may elect community councils. The main role of these bodies is to channel and reflect local opinion to other bodies; they otherwise have very limited powers. There are around 1,200 communities in Scotland. Not all communities have councils; some have joint councils.
Scottish communities are the nearest equivalent to civil parishes in England.
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French comté denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or a viscount. Literal equivalents in other languages, derived from the equivalent of "count", are now seldom used officially, including comté, contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, graafschap, and zhupa in Slavic languages; terms equivalent to commune/community are now often instead used.
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south; it borders the counties of Inverness-shire and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus to the east, Fife, Kinross-shire, Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire to the south and Argyllshire to the west. It was a local government county from 1890 to 1930.
Ayrshire is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire to the north-east, Dumfriesshire to the south-east, and Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire to the south. Like many other counties of Scotland it currently has no administrative function, instead being sub-divided into the council areas of North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire. It has a population of approximately 366,800.
Partick is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park, and to the north Broomhill, Hyndland, Dowanhill, Hillhead, areas which form part of the West End of Glasgow. Partick was a Police burgh from 1852 until 1912 when it was incorporated into the city. Partick is the area of the city most connected with the Highlands, and several Gaelic agencies, such as the Gaelic Books Council are located in the area. Some ATMs in the area display Gaelic.
Local government in Scotland comprises thirty-two local authorities, commonly referred to as Scottish councils. Each council provides public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning. Councils receive the majority of their funding from the Scottish Government, but operate independently and are accountable to their local electorates. Councils raise additional income via the Council Tax, a locally variable domestic property tax, and Business rates, a non-domestic property tax.
Dunbartonshire or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders Perthshire to the north, Stirlingshire to the east, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire to the south, and Argyllshire to the west. The boundaries with Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire are split in two owing to the existence of an exclave around Cumbernauld.
The shires of Scotland, or counties of Scotland, are historic subdivisions of Scotland established in the Middle Ages and used as administrative divisions until 1975. Originally established for judicial purposes, from the 17th century they started to be used for local administration purposes as well. The areas used for judicial functions (sheriffdoms) came to diverge from the shires, which ceased to be used for local government purposes after 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick to the west, and the Yoker and Drumchapel areas of the adjacent City of Glasgow immediately to the east. Depending on the definition of the town's boundaries, the suburban areas of Duntocher, Faifley and Hardgate either surround Clydebank to the north, or are its northern outskirts, with the Kilpatrick Hills beyond.
Caithness is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.
Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has formed part of Dumfries and Galloway for local government purposes. Wigtownshire continues to be used as a territory for land registration, being a registration county. The historic county is all within the slightly larger Wigtown Area, which is one of the lieutenancy areas of Scotland and was used in local government as the Wigtown District from 1975 to 1996.
Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Berwickshire to the north. To the south-west it borders Cumberland and to the south-east Northumberland, both in England.
The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1930. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders Perthshire to the north and Fife to the east, south and west.
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.
Strathclyde was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The Strathclyde region had 19 districts. The region was named after the medieval Kingdom of Strathclyde but covered a broader geographic area than its namesake.
The local government areas of Scotland were redefined by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and redefined again by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994.
Renfrewshire or the County of Renfrew is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It contains the local government council areas of Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire, as well as parts of Glasgow and is occasionally named Greater Renfrewshire to distinguish the county from the modern council area.
The History of local government in Scotland is a complex tale of largely ancient and long established Scottish political units being replaced after the mid 20th century by a frequently changing series of different local government arrangements.
Local government areas covering the whole of Scotland were first defined by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. As currently defined, they are a result, for the most part, of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994.
The Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland, usually called the Wheatley Commission or the Wheatley Report, was published in September 1969 by the chairmanship of Lord Wheatley. Its recommendations led to a new system of regional and district councils, introduced in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.