Glasgow City Centre Population on the Rise

New figures show that the number of people living in Glasgow city centre has risen by a third in just over a decade.

The latest population figures for the city centre show that 28,341 now live in the area, up from 21,185 in 2011. Increasing the city centre population is a key long-term plan for Glasgow and the latest figures show the city coming into line with comparable European cities.

The council approved its City Centre Living Strategy in 2019 with the target of increasing the area's residential population to 40,000 by 2035. 

Increasing the population density of city centres will contribute to making the area more sustainable and economically successful amid challenges from changes to retail habits and investor and developer demand and expectations.

The city centre is already on the way to becoming an area that has a greater mix of uses, and more attractive as a place to live.

The City Centre Living Strategy objectives also include the repurposing (i.e. to residential) of vacant commercial space, offering a responsive and innovative approach to investment opportunities that will assist in the aims of the strategy, and to help create resilient and cohesive neighbourhoods.

Residential developments complete and underway in city centre locations such as the Barclays campus, Candleriggs Square and the Holland Park development at Pitt Street are just some of the projects helping to drive the population increase, with others - at Port Dundas, for example - in the pipeline.

Other trends in the city centre include a move to a younger population - with those in the 16-44 age group making up 80.9% of the population in 2022 (77.1% in 2011) with those in the 45 and over age group making up 14.8% of the population, down from 19% in 2011. Within the older group, there was a rise in the absolute number of people aged between 45-64 living in the city centre, but their share of the population fell given the substantial overall rise in the 2011-22 period.

The city centre population is projected to increase to 34,604 by 2029/30.

Councillor Angus Millar, Convener for City Centre Recovery at Glasgow City Council, said:

The population of Glasgow's city centre has been steadily increasing, and continuing to support more people to live in the city centre will be essential for its future vitality. Comparable cities across the UK and beyond tend to have significantly more densely populated city centres than Glasgow, with a strong city centre population promoting sustainability and supporting local economies. With new residential development continuing to be delivered, we are continuing work to help make the city centre a more attractive place to live in. With the city centre population growing by a third over the past decade and more and more people continuing to choose city centre living, we are well on track to meet our target of 40,000 people living in the city centre by 2035.