Census 2001 - Settlements

This dataset portrays the boundaries of ‘Settlements’ in Scotland as at 2001 Census. There is widespread interest in statistics for the built-up areas in Scotland as most of the population lives in a built-up environment. When the former two-tier local government structure of regions and districts came into being in May 1975, the small local authorities known as large and small burghs were lost. However, Census users stated that there was a need to know the population (and characteristics) of built-up areas. There are 2 datasets which are designed to show the boundaries of ‘urban areas’ in Scotland: ‘Localities’ and ‘Settlements’. While “Settlements’ can go a long way in defining the towns and cities in Scotland, some are very extensive and have grouped together some very large populations. For example the settlement of ‘Greater Glasgow’ has a large population but no breakdown was given of the settlement into any constituent towns or cities such as Airdrie or Paisley. Accordingly, since 2001, the larger ‘Settlements’ have been divided into ‘Localities’ using as a basis the areas so designated in the 1991 Census report ‘Key statistics for ‘localities’ in Scotland (ISBN 0-11-495736-3)’. For the 2001 Census, NRS had developed a new process to identify ‘Settlements’ which were defined as: ‘A collection of contiguous high population density postcodes whose total population was 500 or more, bounded by low density postcodes (or water).’