Settlements and Localities

The settlements of Scotland are built-up areas which round to 500 people or more, with larger settlements divided into localities to reflect areas which are more easily identifiable as the towns and cities of Scotland. These statistics can be used to help understand the population of local communities. They also feed into the production of the Scottish Government’s Urban Rural Classification which provides a consistent way of defining urban and rural areas across Scotland based on settlement population size and accessibility.

Methodology Guide

Mid-year Population Estimates for Settlements and Localities in Scotland
(Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) (450 KB)

Further information on the quality assurance arrangements for administrative data used in population estimates can be found in the National and Official Statistics section of the website.

Further Background information about Settlements and Localities can also be found on this website.

Spatial Boundaries

More information is on spatial boundaries is contained in the Geography section of our website.

Related Publications

Locality geographies
Scottish Settlements Urban and Rural Areas in Scotland
Key Statistics for Settlements and Localities Scotland
Index of Populated Areas in Scotland
 
Information

Find more information on this website about Scotland's Population.

Contact Us 

Please get in touch if you need any further information, or have any suggestions for improvement.

Statistics Customer Services telephone: (0131) 314 4299
E-mail: [email protected]

Lead Statistician: Esther Roughsedge

For media enquiries, please contact [email protected]nd.gov.uk