Greater Glasgow

This article refers to the metropolitan settlement for the NHS Health Board see NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Greater Glasgow in a more general sense refers to the City of Glasgow, together with the network of towns and villages that immediately surround it. It is one of the largest conurbations in the United Kingdom. The surrounding commuter area of Greater Glasgow including other towns, has an approximate population of 2.3 million people^[1], making it the UK's fifth largest metropolitan area, after the London area, the Birmingham/West Midlands area, the Greater Manchester area, and Sheffield/South Yorkshire area.

Just over 40% of Scotland's population live in and around Greater Glasgow. The Glasgow conurbation is served by the largest urban rail network in the UK outside of London,^[2] with 186 rail stations in the Glasgow area. The city is served by the only metro system in Scotland (the Glasgow Subway) and two international airports Glasgow Prestwick International Airport^[3] and Glasgow International Airport.^[4] Glasgow, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, grew to having a population of over one million people and was the third city in Europe to reach one million, after London and Paris.^{[citation needed]} The official population stayed well over one million for more than 50 years.

In the 1960s large-scale relocation to new towns in the suburban area of the city and many boundary changes since then have reduced the population of the core City of Glasgow council area to 578,790^[5] and 1,749,154^[6] in the Metropolitan area of the city. The population of Glasgow and its Metropolitan area combined with the West Central Scotland suburban population is about half of Scotland's entire population.^[7] West Central Scotland is the area within a 15 mile radius of Glasgow city centre.

Following the local government boundary changes in 1996 and the creation of unitary councils in Scotland, replacing the former regional and district councils, the Greater Glasgow Settlement Area or Metropolitan Area was created for the 2001 Census from groups of neighbouring urban postcodes grouped so that each group of postcode unit contains at least a given number of addresses per unit area and the group contains at least 500 residents. The total population is around 2.1 million^{[citation needed]}.

The area includes the following localities: Airdrie, Bargeddie, Barrhead, Bearsden, Bellshill, Bishopbriggs, Bothwell, Busby, Calderbank, Carfin, Chapelhall, Clarkston, Clydebank, Coatbridge, Duntocher and Hardgate, Elderslie, Faifley, Giffnock, Glasgow, Holytown, Howwood, Johnstone, Kilbarchan, Linwood, Milngavie, Milton, Motherwell, New Stevenston, Newarthill, Newmains, Newton Mearns, Old Kilpatrick, Paisley, Renfrew, Stepps, Uddingston, Viewpark and Wishaw.

Demographics

Population density

Due to council boundary changes since the previous census of 1991, Greater Glasgow has two distinct definitions for the population of Glasgow: the new Glasgow City Council Area (which lost the districts of Rutherglen and Cambuslang to South Lanarkshire) and the Greater Glasgow Metropolitan Settlement Area (including surrounding localities).

Glasgow is half the density of Inner London.^{[citation needed]}

Notes and references

1. ^ http://www.spt.co.uk/Publications/interchange/issue07.html
2. ^ http://www.spt.co.uk/rail/index.html
3. ^ http://www.gpia.co.uk/
4. ^ http://www.glasgowairport.com/
5. ^ The official population of Glasgow City Council unitary authority. General Register Office for Scotland
6. ^ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/fom2005/03_FOPM_UrbanAreas.pdf
7. ^ http://www.spt.co.uk/Publications/interchange/issue07.html
8. ^ The official population of Glasgow City Council unitary authority. General Register Office for Scotland
9. ^ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/fom2005/03_FOPM_UrbanAreas.pdf
10. ^ 2001 Census www.scrol.gov.uk/

Wikipedia information about Greater Glasgow This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Greater Glasgow". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.