Subdivisions of Scotland

Council areas of Scotland
Shetland Orkney Moray Aberdeenshire Aberdeen City Angus Dundee City Fife Scottish Borders Dumfries and Galloway East Ayrshire 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	22,020 (Orkney Islands) – 650,300 (Glasgow)
Areas	60 km2 (23 sq mi) (Dundee) – 25,653 km2 (9,905 sq mi) (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.

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 of Scotland

Coat of arms	Council area	Council	Land area[3]		Population (2024)[3]	Density[3]		Administrative centre
			(km2)	(mi2)		(/km2)	(/mi2)
	Aberdeen City	Aberdeen City Council	186	72	231,780	1,249	3,230	Aberdeen
	Aberdeenshire	Aberdeenshire Council	6,313	2,437	265,080	42	110	Aberdeen
	Angus	Angus Council	2,181	842	114,810	53	140	Forfar
	Argyll and Bute	Argyll and Bute Council	6,907	2,667	87,690	13	34	Lochgilphead
	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire Council	159	61	52,110	327	850	Alloa
	Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway Council	6,426	2,481	145,860	23	60	Dumfries
	Dundee City	Dundee City Council	60	23	149,880	2,506	6,490	Dundee
	East Ayrshire	East Ayrshire Council	1,262	487	121,480	96	250	Kilmarnock
	East Dunbartonshire	East Dunbartonshire Council	174	67	109,970	630	1,600	Kirkintilloch
	East Lothian	East Lothian Council	679	262	115,180	170	440	Haddington
	East Renfrewshire	East Renfrewshire Council	174	67	99,830	573	1,480	Giffnock
	City of Edinburgh	City of Edinburgh Council	263	102	530,680	2,015	5,220	Edinburgh
	Falkirk	Falkirk Council	297	115	160,020	539	1,400	Falkirk
	Fife	Fife Council	1,325	512	374,760	283	730	Glenrothes
	Glasgow City	Glasgow City Council	175	68	650,300	3,724	9,650	Glasgow
	Highland	Highland Council	25,653	9,905	237,290	9	23	Inverness
	Inverclyde	Inverclyde Council	160	62	78,880	492	1,270	Greenock
	Midlothian	Midlothian Council	354	137	99,880	282	730	Dalkeith
	Moray	Moray Council	2,238	864	95,010	42	110	Elgin
	Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	3,056	1,180	26,020	9	23	Stornoway
	North Ayrshire	North Ayrshire Council	885	342	134,010	151	390	Irvine
	North Lanarkshire	North Lanarkshire Council	470	180	344,540	733	1,900	Motherwell
	Orkney	Orkney Islands Council	990	380	22,020	22	57	Kirkwall
	Perth and Kinross	Perth and Kinross Council	5,286	2,041	154,420	29	75	Perth
	Renfrewshire	Renfrewshire Council	261	101	189,170	723	1,870	Paisley
	Scottish Borders	Scottish Borders Council	4,732	1,827	116,980	25	65	Newtown St Boswells
	Shetland Islands	Shetland Islands Council	1,467	566	23,190	16	41	Lerwick
	South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Council	1,222	472	112,260	92	240	Ayr
	South Lanarkshire	South Lanarkshire Council	1,772	684	334,030	189	490	Hamilton
	Stirling	Stirling Council	2,186	844	94,210	43	110	Stirling
	West Dunbartonshire	West Dunbartonshire Council	159	61	89,120	561	1,450	Dumbarton
	West Lothian	West Lothian Council	428	165	186,440	436	1,130	Livingston

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.^[4]

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.

In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), Scotland is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKM", which is subdivided as follows:^[5]

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

The current land registration system in Scotland divides Scotland into 33 Registration Counties,^[6] 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:^[7]

• Glasgow and Strathkelvin
• Grampian, Highland and Islands
• Lothian and Borders
• North Strathclyde
• South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway
• Tayside, Central and Fife

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

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.

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