Council areas of Scotland

A council area in Scotland is an area made for local government. There is a total of 32 council areas in Scotland. They are all governed by unitary authorities called "councils". The council areas were created on 1 April 1996, under the provisions of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The Act calls them local authority areas but most people call them council areas.

The council areas have the option of being known as a comhairle when choosing to go by a Gaelic name. However, only Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar (Council of the Western Isles) has chosen this option, while the Highland Council (Comhairle na Gaidhealtachd) uses both an English name and a Gaelic name.^[1]

MAINLAND Area (sq miles) Area (km²) Number of people (2001)[1] Number of people (latest estimate [2]) How many per km² (2001)[1] Aberdeen City 70 182 212,125 227,560 1164 Aberdeenshire 2439 6317 226,871 261,210 36 Angus 843 2184 108,400 115,820 50 Argyll and Bute 2712 7023 91,306 85,870 13 Clackmannanshire 61 158 48,077 51,540 304 Dumfries and Galloway 2489 6446 147,765 148,860 23 Dundee 21 55 145,663 149,320 2648 East Ayrshire 492 1275 120,235 122,010 94 East Dunbartonshire 68 176 108,243 108,640 617 East Lothian 257 666 90,088 107,090 135 East Renfrewshire 65 168 89,311 95,530 532 City of Edinburgh 100 260 448,624 524,930 1725 Falkirk 113 293 145,191 160,340 496 Fife 517 1340 349,429 373,550 261 City of Glasgow 68 175 577,869 633,120 3307 Highland 10,085 26,119 208,914 235,540 8 Inverclyde 64 167 84,203 77,800 503 Midlothian 135 350 80,941 92,460 231 Moray 864 2237 86,940 95,820 39 North Ayrshire 343 888 135,817 134,740 153 North Lanarkshire 184 476 321,067 340,180 674 Perth and Kinross 2083 5395 134,949 151,950 25 Renfrewshire 102 263 172,867 179,100 659 Scottish Borders 1825 4727 106,764 115,510 23 South Ayrshire 475 1230 112,097 112,610 93 South Lanarkshire 686 1778 302,216 319,020 170 Stirling 866 2243 86,212 94,210 38 West Dunbartonshire 68 176 93,378 88,930 531 West Lothian 165 427 158,714 182,140 372 MAINLAND ALL TOGETHER 28,260 73,193 4,994,276   68 ISLANDS           Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) 1185 3070 26,502 26,720 9 Orkney Islands 396 1025 19,245 22,270 19 Shetland Islands 568 1471 21,988 23,210 15 ISLANDS ALL TOGETHER 2149 5566 67,735   12 SCOTLAND ALL TOGETHER 30,409 78,759 5,062,011   64

References

1. 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland - Release 1B Table 2: Census day usually resident population by council area, 2001 and 2011 , Accessed 22 March 2013
2. Population Estimates (Current Geographic Boundaries) Archived 2017-04-25 at the Wayback Machine data cube as published by statistics.gov.scot on 1st April 2020