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.

MAINLAND	Area (sq miles)	Area (km²)	Number of people (2001)	Number of people (latest estimate )	How many per km² (2001)
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 2 3 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
↑ 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

[2011_Census-1] 1 2 3 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

[2019_estimates-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