Subdivisions of Scotland

For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas" which are all governed by unitary authorities designated as "councils". They have the option under the Local Government (Gaelic Names) (Scotland) Act 1997 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 Gaidhealtachd) 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.

Other administrative bodies (some of which are described below) still follow boundaries derived from older local government arrangements.

History of the subdivisions of Scotland

Further information: History of burghs and History of local government in 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.

The 1996 reform of local government in Scotland, enacted by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, studiously avoided specifying a name for the area administered by a unitary authority. The boundaries of each council's jurisdiction often differed from those of both the regions and districts instituted in the 1970s and of the counties established in the 1890s, which were themselves often based on the shires or sheriffdoms, the first of which were established by Malcolm III. When one also takes into account the burghs the true complexity of the matter is revealed. Thus it is not actually known what the correct term for the areas governed by the new unitary councils is or even if there is one.

Council areas

MAINLAND	Area (sq miles)	Area (km²)	Population (2011)	Density (per km²)
Aberdeen City	70	182	223,000	1225
Aberdeenshire	2,439	6,317	253,000	40
Angus	843	2,184	116,000	53
Argyll and Bute	2,712	7,023	88,000	13
Clackmannanshire	61	158	51,000	323
Dumfries and Galloway	2,489	6,446	151,000	23
Dundee City	21	55	147,000	2673
East Ayrshire	492	1,275	123,000	96
East Dunbartonshire	68	176	105,000	597
East Lothian	257	666	100,000	150
East Renfrewshire	65	168	91,000	542
City of Edinburgh	100	260	477,000	1835
Falkirk	113	293	156,000	532
Fife	517	1,340	365,000	272
Glasgow City	68	175	593,000	3389
Highland	10,085	26,119	232,000	9
Inverclyde	64	167	84,203	485
Midlothian	135	350	83,000	237
Moray	864	2,237	93,000	42
North Ayrshire	343	888	138,000	155
North Lanarkshire	184	476	338,000	710
Perth and Kinross	2,083	5,395	147,000	27
Renfrewshire	102	263	175,000	665
Scottish Borders	1,825	4,727	114,000	24
South Ayrshire	475	1,230	113,000	92
South Lanarkshire	686	1,778	314,000	177
Stirling	866	2,243	90,000	40
West Dunbartonshire	68	176	91,000	517
West Lothian	165	427	175,000	410
TOTAL MAINLAND	28,260	73,193	5,223,000	71
ISLANDS
Na h-Eileanan Siar	1,185	3,070	28,000	9
Orkney Islands	396	1,025	21,000	20
Shetland Islands	568	1,471	23,000	16
TOTAL ISLANDS	2,149	5,566	72,000	13
TOTAL SCOTLAND	30,409	78,759	5,295,000	67

Source: 2011 Census for Scotland

Other subdivisions

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

Police and fire services

Police and fire service areas date from the era (1975 to 1996) of regions and districts and island council areas. In both cases there are current (2011) intentions announced by the Scottish Government to reduce the overall number of separate services.

Services	Original area (former regions)	Council areas
Central Scotland Police Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service	Central	Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary Dumfries and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service	Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway
Fife Constabulary Fife Fire and Rescue Service	Fife	Fife
Grampian Police Grampian Fire and Rescue Service	Grampian	Aberdeenshire, the City of Aberdeen and Moray
Lothian and Borders Police Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service	Lothians and the Scottish Borders	The City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Scottish Borders, Midlothian and West Lothian
Northern Constabulary Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service	Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles	Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)
Strathclyde Police Strathclyde Fire and Rescue	Strathclyde	Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, City of Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire
Tayside Police Tayside Fire and Rescue Service	Tayside	Angus, the City of Dundee and Perth & Kinross

Electoral and valuation

There are several joint boards for electoral registration and the purposes of property valuation for assessing council tax and rates.

Joint board area	Council areas
Ayrshire Ayrshire and Arran in other contexts	East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire
Borders	Scottish Borders
Central Scotland	Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway
Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute	East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Argyll and Bute
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

Health

See also NHS Scotland

Health board area	Council areas
Ayrshire and Arran	East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire
Borders	Scottish Borders
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway
Fife	Fife
Forth Valley Central Scotland in other contexts	Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling
Grampian	Aberdeenshire, City of Aberdeen and Moray
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	City of Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire, together with the towns of Cambuslang and Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire
Highland	Argyll and Bute and Highland
Lanarkshire	North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire (excepting the towns of Cambuslang and Rutherglen which are in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area)
Lothian	City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian
Orkney	Orkney Islands
Shetland	Shetland Islands
Tayside	Angus, City of Dundee and Perth and Kinross
Western Isles (Eileanan Siar)	Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar)

Transport

See also: Transport Scotland

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
NESTRANS	Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire
TACTRAN	Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Stirling
HITRANS	Argyll and Bute (except Helensburgh and Lomond), Highland, Moray, Western Isles, Orkney
Shetland	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

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:

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

Land Registration

The current land registration system in Scotland divides Scotland into 33 counties, 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

Sheriffdoms are judicial areas. Since 1 January 1975 these have been six in number:

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

Civil parishes

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 continue to form current registration districts. It should be noted that many boundary changes have occurred over the years and that 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.

Communities

The base level of sub-division in Scotland is that of communities which may elect community councils (CCs). The main role of the CCs is to channel local opinion to larger local-government bodies. Otherwise they 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
• Fire and Rescue Authority (Scotland), a body responsible for fire services which is formed from persons representing the authority or authorities within its area.