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Scottish cities

Population trends for selected Scottish cities, 1982 - 2021
pop Scot cities trend 1982 2021Over the period 1982-2021, Glasgow’s population dropped by 67,000 (10%), although there has been modest population growth since 2007. Dundee's population has also reduced since 1982 by 12%, while over the same period Edinburgh's population increased by 18% and Aberdeen's by 7%.

In 2021, the populations of all Scotland's largest cities decreased slightly. 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.

Population estimates for selected Scottish cities
pop Scot cities 2021Glasgow’s population is the largest of all Scottish cities. The populations of Glasgow and Edinburgh are more than double those of Aberdeen and Dundee.

Population by deprivation decile in selected Scottish cities, 2021
pop Scot cities SIMD 2021Glasgow has a more deprived population than Scotland's other large cities. 29% of Glaswegians live in the most deprived 10% of areas in Scotland while only 6% live in the least deprived 10% of areas in Scotland. In contrast, approximately 24% of people in Aberdeen and 30% of people in Edinburgh live in the least deprived 10% of areas of Scotland.

Notes

It is worth noting that these city populations are based on local authority boundaries and thus do not reflect the size of the wider surrounding conurbation for each city. For example, the Greater Glasgow and Clyde population is 1.2 million, and using a wider definition of the Glasgow conurbation, encompassing the West of Scotland and including Lanarkshire and parts of Ayrshire, would bring the population to above 2 million.

The deprivation graph above shows the proportions of population of the four cities broken down by 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’