Frequently Asked Questions - Councils and Wards

How many wards and councillors are there?
There are a total of 1222 councillors elected from 353 wards in Scotland's 32 local authorities - each ward returns either 3 or 4 councillors. You can get a lot more information from the publications page of this website, including a full list of the wards and the number of councillors returned for each local authority, the reports of our Fourth Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements which led to those ward boundaries, and Information Papers that describe the electoral arrangements for local authorities since 1973.

Does the Commission decide how many councillors there are for a local authority?
As part of an electoral review of a local authority, we will make a recommendation on how many councillors there should be for that local authority. As with all of our recommendations, Scottish Ministers decide how to implement that recommendation.

What's the structure of Scottish local authority areas?
The current local authority structure in Scotland of 32 single-tier (or unitary) local authorities was introduced in 1995. There are Information Papers that describe how the boundaries of local authority areas have been defined since 1973 on the publications page of this website.

Where is Na h-Eileanan an Iar?
Na h-Eileanan an Iar is the local authority area covering the Western Isles, and its Council's name is Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Comhairle is Gaelic for Council). The local authority was established in 1996 under the name Western Isles, but changed that to Na h-Eileanan an Iar shortly afterwards. Since na h- is a form of the definite article ("the" in English), we put Na h-Eileanan an Iar under "E" in alphabetical lists.

Do you define the areas of community councils?
No. Community councils and their areas of responsibility are defined by local authorities. The legislation allows a local authority or Scottish Ministers to consult us when deciding on community council boundaries, but this only happens infrequently. If you want more information about community councils, you should contact the local authority responsible for the area that you are interested in.