List of counties of Scotland 1890–1975 explained

This is a list of counties of Scotland created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 and abolished in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The list includes the county town, area, and population density.

Counties

County	County town^[1]	Alternative forms and Gaelic name	Area (acres)^[2]	Area (km^2)^[3]	Population^[4]	Population density (per km^2)^[5]
Inverness-shire	Inverness		2,695,094	10,915.13	89,655	8.21
Argyll	Lochgilphead	Argyllshire; Argyle; Earra-Ghaidheal	2,067,034^[6]	8,364.98	59,777	7.15
Ross and Cromarty	Dingwall	Ross-shire	1,977,254	8,007.88	58,284	7.28
Perthshire^[7]	Perth		1,586,577^[8]	6,425.63	127,104	19.78
Sutherland	Dornoch^[9]		1,297,914	5,276.07	13,055	2.47
Aberdeenshire	Aberdeen		1,246,585^[10]	5,172.55	150,703^[11]	29.14
Ayrshire	Ayr		724,239^[12]	2,930.95	361,248	123.25
Dumfriesshire	Dumfries		688,067^[13]	2,784.56	88,215	31.68
Kirkcudbrightshire	Kirkcudbright	The Stewartry	574,024	2,324.79	27,369	11.77
Angus	Forfar	Forfarshire	540,352^[14]	2,186.77	97,312	44.50
Lanarkshire	Hamilton (historically Lanark)		535,605^[15]	2,169.20	626,787	288.95
Caithness	Wick	Gallaibh	438,833	1,775.93	27,792	15.65
Roxburghshire	Jedburgh^[16]		425,564	1,725.24	41,960	24.32
Banffshire	Banff		403,054	1,631.14	43,500	26.67
Zetland	Lerwick	Shetland, Sealltainn, Hjaltiland	c.3,523.37^[17]	1,425.85^[18]	17,331	12.15
Fife	Cupar	Fifeshire, Fiobha	322,878	1,306.67	327,126	250.35
Wigtownshire	Wigtown	The Shire	311,984	1,262.58	27,337	21.65
Moray^[19]	Elgin	Morayshire, Elginshire, Moireabh	304,931	1,234.97	51,502	41.70
Berwickshire	Duns (anciently Berwick-upon-Tweed, and then Greenlaw)		292,535	1,183.84	20,778	17.55
Stirlingshire	Stirling		288,349	1,166.90	208,958	179.07
Kincardineshire	Stonehaven (historically Kincardine)	The Mearns, A' Mhaoirne	244,428^[20]	989.93	26,066	26.33
Orkney	Kirkwall	Arcaibh, Orkneyjar	c.240,848	934.67^[21]	17,082	18.28
Peeblesshire	Peebles		222,240	900.07	13,675	15.19
Midlothian	Edinburgh	Edinburghshire	203,354^[22]	823.58	142,213	172.68
Selkirkshire	Selkirk		171,209^[23]	692.85	20,868	30.12
East Lothian	Haddington	Haddingtonshire	171,044^[24]	692.73	55,908	80.71
Dunbartonshire	Dumbarton	Dumbartonshire	154,467^[25]	625.11	237,540	380.00
Renfrewshire	Renfrew		143,829	578.00	362,130	626.52
Bute	Rothesay	Buteshire	139,711	565.39	13,309	23.54
Nairnshire	Nairn		104,251	422.21	11,050	26.17
West Lothian	Linlithgow	Linlithgowshire	76,859	311.03	108,484	348.79
Kinross-shire	Kinross		52,025^[26]	210.70	6,423	30.48
Clackmannanshire	Alloa (historically Clackmannan)		34,838	140.99	45,544	323.03

Cities

Historically cities were parts of larger counties. Edinburgh was in Midlothian, Aberdeen in Aberdeenshire, and Glasgow in Lanarkshire (although parts of greater Glasgow extended into other counties, e.g. Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire).

County	County town	Alternative forms and Gaelic name	Area (acres)	Area (km^2)	Population	Population density (per km^2)
City of Glasgow	Glasgow	Glaschu, Glesca, Glasgie	34,647	140.21	897,484	6,401.00
City of Edinburgh	Edinburgh	Dun Eideann, Embra, Edina, Dunedin, Auld Reekie	32,415	131.17	453,585	3,457.99
City of Dundee	Dundee	Dùn Dè	12,229	49.48	182,204	3,682.33
City of Aberdeen	Aberdeen	Obar Dheathain, Aiberdein	16,715^[27]	67.64	182,071	2,691.77

See also

• Counties of Scotland
• List of counties of Scotland by area in 1951
• List of counties of Scotland by population in 1951
• List of counties of Scotland by population in 1971
• List of Scottish counties by highest point
• List of Scottish council areas by area
• List of Scottish council areas by highest point

References

• "Scotland Table 1" A Vision of Britain. Retrieved 27 December 2007.
• Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland. London. HarperCollins.
• "Scotland Table 1" A Vision of Britain. Retrieved 27 December 2007.

Notes and References

1. Keay & Keay (1994)
2. Keay & Keay (1994) unless otherwise stated.
3. Keay & Keay (1994) in cases where the area is provided by this author. Otherwise the figure is a calculation based on the assumed area.
4. United Kingdom 1971 Census
5. Calculated from 1971 Census data and 'Area'.
6. Argyllshire is reduced to a land area of 1,990,521 acres (8055.35 km²) if "waters, marsh and foreshore" are excluded from the total.
7. Perth and Kinross were administered as a "combined county" from 1930-1975.
8. Reduced from 1595804acres in 1951.
9. According to Keay (1994) Dornoch was generally 'considered' to be the county town of Sutherland, although the council offices were in Golspie.
10. Possibly reduced from 1263300acres in 1951 but see 'City of Aberdeen' below).
11. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TPop&u_id=10032842&c_id=10090283&add=N "Aberdeenshire District: Total Population"
12. Increased from 724232acres in 1951.
13. Reduced from 688111acres in 1951.
14. Reduced from 546775acres in 1951.
15. Reduced from 535862acres in 1951.
16. According to Keay (1994) the county town was Newtown St Boswells. The County Offices had moved there in 1899. Web site: Overview of Jedburgh . 2008-08-01 . Gazetteer for Scotland . The Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh . However, the county town is usually listed as Jedburgh, e.g. in Encyclopedia II op cit and "Carnegie Libraries" scotcities.com Retrieved 26 December 2007.
17. The areas for Berwickshire, Bute, Orkney, Renfrewshire, West Lothian and Zetland and the three cities are not provided by Keay (1994) and the figures used are from the 1951 census.
18. The current figure for Orkney Islands Council is 1,466 km2 for the same geographical area.
19. Moray and Nairn were administered as a "combined county" from 1930-1975.
20. Reduced from 242460acres in 1951.
21. The current figure for Orkney Islands Council is 990 km² for the same geographical area.
22. Increased from 201922acres in 1951.
23. Keay (1994) provides the figure of 121240acres. This is probably a typographical error for 171240acres. For example, the 1976 World Book has a figure of 695 km2 for the county. The 1951 Census figure is used in this column.
24. Increased from 170971acres in 1951.
25. Increased from 154362acres in 1951.
26. Reduced from 52392acres in 1951.
27. Neither Keay (1994) or Vision of Britain offer a specific statistic. However the latter records a total area of 1263300acres for 'Aberdeen'. This is clearly inclusive of Aberdeenshire, which elsewhere in the same database recorded as having an area of 1246585acres. The figure recorded here is the difference between the two. In general terms this is consistent with the Vision of Britain maps for the area.