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Glasgow City Region

Population trends within the Glasgow City Region, 1982-2021
pop GCR LAs trend 1982 2021There have been contrasting population trends in the local authorities in Glasgow City Region over the last four decades (1982-2021). In this period the population of some local authorities has reduced substantially - Inverclyde (-24%), Glasgow (-10%), and West Dunbartonshire (-16%). However, in contrast, over the same period, the populations of East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire increased, by 20% and 5%, respectively. 

Between 2007 and 2020, there was a steady rise in Glasgow's population, but in 2021 the city's population reduced slightly in commnon with trends seen in Scoltand's other large cities. This is being interpreted by NRS as a Covid-19 related impact with reductions in city populations attributed to people moving out of cities into surrounding local authorities. While Glasgow's population contracted slightly between 2020 and 2021, reducing by 0.1%, the population of every adjacent surrounding local authority in the region rose by 0.1% - 0.6%.

Population estimates for local authorities within the Glasgow City Region
pop GCR LAs 2021Glasgow’s population is considerably larger than that of any of the other seven local authorities in the Glasgow City Region. Glasgow’s population is more than six times greater than that of Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire.

Population by deprivation decile, Glasgow City Region Local Authorities, 2021
pop GCR SIMD 2021There is wide variation in the distribution of populations living in deprivation across the Glasgow City Region. Glasgow has the greatest concentration of people living in deprived circumstances, followed by Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire, while at the other extreme the populations in East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire are much less deprived. Nevertheless every local authority contains a proportion of their population who live in the most deprived decile in Scotland.

Under the latest version of Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD 2020), Inverclyde has overtaken Glasgow as having the highest proportion of its population residing in the most deprived decile; 30% compared to 29% in Glasgow. This is in part because Glasgow's population has become marginally less deprived relative to other areas over time. 

Nevertheless three out of ten Glaswegians still live in the most deprived 10% of areas in Scotland while only 6% of Glaswegians live in the least deprived 10% of areas in Scotland. In contrast, 38% and 28% respectively of the populations of East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire reside in the least deprived 10% of areas.

Notes 

The graph immediately above shows the proportions of population across the eight local authorities in the Glasgow City Region split by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (2020) deciles. These deciles break down the population of Scotland into ten groups each containing approximately 10% of the population. Decile 1 represents the most deprived 10% of areas by population, decile 2 the next most deprived 10% of areas and so on, until decile 10 which represents the least deprived 10% of areas.

This page was last updated in September 2022.

Further reading under ‘Population Estimates’