ABSTRACT
The city of Glasgow is an old industrial city, situated in the southwest of Scotland on the bank of the River Clyde: the ‘central belt of Scotland’. Glasgow is the centre of the Strathclyde Region. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Glasgow was very prosperous. But, after the decline of the traditional industries in the 1960s, the city faced severe economic and social problems. In 2001, Glasgow city had 578,000 inhabitants and in the same period Glasgow region had a total population of 629,500. This is about 12 per cent of the population of Scotland. The population density is almost 33 persons per hectare. For a long time now, the population of Glasgow has been declining. The city of Glasgow is divided into 79 wards and is directly governed by the Glasgow City Council. This local authority was established by statute on 1 April 1996, after a reorganization of local government in Scotland.
