Scottish Settlements Urban and Rural Areas in Scotland

Results

Comparison with 1991 localities

17. Table 3 shows that the population in settlements in Scotland in 2000 was 0.46 per cent higher than in 1991 localities. This net gain consists of:

• population in a 2000 settlement not in a 1991 locality (1.72 per cent of the 1999 population living within the areas of 1991 localities) and
• population in a 1991 locality not in a 2000 settlement (1.26 per cent of the 1999 population living within the areas of 1991 localities).

The net gain was highest in West Lothian with a figure of over 5 per cent. North Ayrshire, East Lothian, Perth & Kinross and Aberdeen City showed increases of between 2 and 3 per cent. At the other end of the scale were the three island areas and the two mainland areas of Highland and Argyll & Bute with net losses ranging from 3 to over 8 per cent. Council areas that had standard thresholds (see paragraphs 8 and 9 of Annex C) and showed the greatest net losses were East Ayrshire (-1.1 per cent) and Falkirk (-0.8 per cent).

18. The 2000 exercise identified 18 settlements that were 'new', that is, were not recognised as localities in 1991. The largest of these new settlements, Blackwood (Cumbernauld), contained 1,470 persons. The exercise also failed to create a settlement in any part of some 29 of the 1991 localities. Seventeen of these had 1999 populations of over 500, therefore meeting the population threshold, so were 'lost' because not all of the postcodes within them were above the density thresholds.