Glasgow’s city centre population has risen by a third over the last thirteen years, new figures show.
The number of people calling the city centre home has increased from 21,185 in 2011 to 28,341.
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.”
Increasing the city centre population of Scotland’s largest city is a key long-term plan for the local authority to improve its economy.
The latest figures show that Glasgow is gradually coming into line with comparable European cities.
Glasgow City Council approved its City Centre Living Strategy in 2019 with the aim being to increase the area’s residential population to 40,000 by 2035.
Bosses say the area is on track to hit the target with Glasgow becoming a place with an increasing mix of uses, making it a more attractive place to live. They are also projecting the population to increase to 34,604 by 2030
The new figures also show that the city centre is moving toward a younger population, with those in the 16-44 age group making up 80.9% of the population in 2022, and the 45 and over age group only making up 14.8% of the population – down from 19 per cent in 2011.
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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.
As part of the plans to increase the population of the city centre to 40,000 in the next decade, the council has set out a City Centre Living Strategy.
Its objectives include the repurposing of vacant commercial space into residential space.
The local authority says 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.
Councillor Millar added: “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.”
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