Council areas of Scotland
Shetland Orkney Moray Aberdeenshire Aberdeen City Angus Dundee City Fife Scottish Borders Dumfries and Galloway East Ayshire South Ayrshire Argyll and Bute Perth and Kinross Outer Hebrides Highland N. Ayrsh. IVC RFW WDU EDU GLG ERW  N. Lanark. Falk. W. Loth. EDH Mid- lothian East Lothian CLK Stirling South Lanark.
Category	Administrative unit
Location	Scotland
Number	32
Populations	21,400 (Orkney Islands) – 593,200 (Glasgow)
Areas	21 square miles (54 km2) (Dundee) - 11,838 square miles (30,660 km2) (Highland)
Government	Council government
Subdivisions	None

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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.

History of the subdivisions of Scotland

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.

Council areas

• These are mid-year estimates for mid-2019 est. from the Office for National Statistics.

Coat of arms	Council area	Council	Population[3]	Electors[4]	Area (km2)[5]	Density (per km2)
	Glasgow City	Glasgow City Council	635,130	465,164	174.6	3,637
	City of Edinburgh	City of Edinburgh Council	526,470	397,692	263.4	1,999
	Fife	Fife Council	374,730	286,126	1,325	283
	North Lanarkshire	North Lanarkshire Council	341,400	262,926	470	726
	South Lanarkshire	South Lanarkshire Council	322,630	255,924	1,772	182
-	Aberdeenshire	Aberdeenshire Council	262,690	205,775	6,313	42
	Highland	Highland Council	238,060	187,428	25,653	9
	Aberdeen City	Aberdeen City Council	227,430	168,191	185.6	1,226
	West Lothian	West Lothian Council	185,580	145,310	427.7	434
	Renfrewshire	Renfrewshire Council	179,940	141,027	261.5	688
	Falkirk	Falkirk Council	160,700	125,525	297.1	541
	Perth and Kinross	Perth and Kinross Council	153,810	119,961	5,286	29
	Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway Council	148,790	116,713	6,426	23
	Dundee City	Dundee City Council	147,720	112,050	59.8	2,470
	North Ayrshire	North Ayrshire Council	134,220	110,043	885.3	152
	East Ayrshire	East Ayrshire Council	122,020	97,920	1,262	97
	Angus	Angus Council	116,120	91,416	2,181	53
	Scottish Borders	Scottish Borders Council	116,020	93,067	4,732	25
	South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Council	112,450	92,888	1,222	92
	East Dunbartonshire	East Dunbartonshire Council	108,900	88,870	174.5	624
	East Lothian	East Lothian Council	109,580	87,919	679.2	161
	Moray	Moray Council	96,410	74,641	2,238	43
-	East Renfrewshire	East Renfrewshire Council	96,580	73,583	174.2	554
	Stirling	Stirling Council	93,470	70,977	2,186	43
	Midlothian	Midlothian Council	94,680	75,401	353.7	268
	West Dunbartonshire	West Dunbartonshire Council	87,790	70,219	158.8	553
	Argyll and Bute	Argyll and Bute Council	86,220	70,247	6,907	12
	Inverclyde	Inverclyde Council	76,700	60,632	160.4	478
	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire Council	51,540	40,228	159.2	324
	Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	26,640	21,626	3,056	9
	Shetland Islands	Shetland Islands Council	22,940	18,059	1,467	16
	Orkney	Orkney Islands Council	22,540	17,669	990.5	23

Other subdivisions

Scotland has several other administrative divisions, some of which are handled by joint boards of the councils.

Eurostat NUTS

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
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

Lieutenancy areas

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.

Lieutenancy areas of Scotland

Aberdeen Aberdeenshire Angus Argyll and Bute Ayrshire and Arran Banffshire Berwickshire Caithness Clackmannanshire Dumfries Dunbartonshire Dundee East Lothian Edinburgh Fife Glasgow Inverness Kincardineshire Lanarkshire Midlothian Moray Nairn Perth and Kinross Renfrewshire Ross and Cromarty Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale Stirling and Falkirk Sutherland The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright Tweeddale West Lothian Western Isles Wigtown Not shown: Orkney Shetland

Lower level subdivisions

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.

See also

• List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom
• ISO 3166-2:GB, subdivision codes for the United Kingdom
• Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions
• Scottish Westminster constituencies

References