paravostok

Introduction: As of October 2025, there are 8 cities in Scotland. All these 8 have some sort of justification for their status, whether it be historical or cultural reasons, or a more pragmatic one. For example, Dunfermline was made a city in October 2022 during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, it was chosen due to it’s history as being Scotland’s ancient capital and its rich architecture, such as Dunfermline Abbey. Others, such as Glasgow have been cities since the 15th century. I’d argue that these are the 2 justifications for city status, every city in Scotland can be sorted into one of these categories. This is not to discount the cultural cities and say they are less deserving of the title, but it is to say, a lot of other places fit one of these categories, and yet, aren't cities. However, to me one place screams out to me as having both of these factors, and yet no official recognition: Falkirk. The “Proper” or “Functional” city argument. To many people, a city is New York, London, Tokyo, sprawling metropolis regions populated by millions, with a massive global cultural and economic impact. Whilst Scotland lacks one of these mega-cities, beasts of their own class, Scotland has a few cities that fall into this category in my opinion, where everyone would go “aye, that’s a city” and locals would get mad at you if you labelled it otherwise. To me the 4 “proper” cities of Scotland are, in order by population decreasing, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dundee. As per official statistics, these are by far the largest areas in Scotland, and deserve recognition as anchors for their communities, they are truly and undeniably “cities”, people commute in and out, large infrastructure, centre of regions, such as Grampian, Tayside, Lothian, or Clyde/Strathclyde, and centre of their own local council areas, Edinburgh City Council, Aberdeen City Council, Dundee City Council, and Glasgow City Council. These areas are so large they demand their own administrative powers, and I believe that somewhere else in Scotland ticks all these boxes, Falkirk. Falkirk council has a population of 160,000, making it larger than Dundee city council, Falkirk is the midpoint between Glasgow and Edinburgh via the M9 as well as the “eXpress” trainline between the two. Falkirk has commuter rail, easy access to the motorway, lots of jobs, their own administrative council, and a population similar to Dundee, in my opinion, this demonstrates that Falkirk deserves city status based on the functional argument alone. There’s also the “Ceremonial” city argument. To other people, a city may be a place that was appointed status, including those that were primarily for historical or cultural reasons, some examples may be, Derry in Northern Ireland, Bangor in Wales, or Truro in Cornwall. These places all have rich histories and deserve recognition of some kind, and although they’re not like typical “cities” they still have status as such. In Scotland I’d argue that we have 4 ceremonial cities: Dunfermline, Inverness, Perth, and Stirling. All of these 4 are significantly smaller than the 4 cities I'd class as functional cities, for example, the largest of the 4 ceremonial cities, Dunfermline, only has a population of 55,000, compared to the largest of the functional cities, Glasgow, which has a population of over 600,000. Now, many places in Scotland have a particularly rich and interesting history, infact it may be harder to find a place without a storied past than it is one without, however one place stands out to me in particular, Falkirk. Falkirk has a rich past with a roman history, which is visually obvious thanks to the Antonine wall, Falkirk was also the birthplace of Scotland’s second national drink, Irn-Bru, as well as being an important area in the Scottish wars of independence, such as the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, which led to William Wallace resigning as guardian of Scotland, Falkirk also hosts the Falkirk wheel, the world's only rotating boat lift, which links the culturally significant Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal. I think this makes it clear that Falkirk has and is an important cultural icon for Scotland and its history, making it deserving of official recognition as a city based on the ceremonial argument. Now, throughout this essay I haven’t been entirely honest with you, the reader. For my basis of population, I have mostly been using council boundaries, which completely misrepresent the data. For example, Glasgow City Council, technically has just 600,000 people in it, and if you asked most people, they’d tell you that that’s the population of Glasgow. However there are other definitions of what “Glasgow” is that are far more representative of the actual population, for example, the Glasgow City Region, which encompasses 1.8 million people, 3 times the original number of people! And representing almost 1/3rd (~32.3%) of all people in Scotland. The area that most people would associate as being “Glasgow” would almost certainly include places like Glasgow Airport, Rutherglen, or Yoker that aren’t actually in Glasgow. In Falkirk this means that from now on I am not referring to the town (pop. ~34k) or the council (pop. ~160k) but a sort of goldilocks area that is largely continuous and forms a single urban area with a cohesive core, the population of this area is likely between 130k and 150k. This isn’t small by any means, but would make it Scotland’s smallest “proper” city. An easier way to think about it is, if someone says “London” you’d assume they’re not talking about the City of London (10k), and actually meant “Greater London” (8.9 million). By taking and applying this disparity between official and cultural definitions of a place, we can see the “true” area, which in Falkirk’s case, increases its population tenfold. Now, some people would argue that this is all pointless anyways, as city status is ceremonial and largely meaningless, however, I don’t believe it is. I think that this is a mischaracterisation of what “city status” is in the United Kingdom. Areas that have been awarded city status in recent memory have seen increased local pride, increased tourism, and other various economic benefits. For example, Inverness, after receiving city status in 2000 saw more houses being built, money invested in revamping deprived areas, which led to higher tourism and being more attractive to businesses overall. Falkirk’s town centre is certainly beautiful but could certainly do with a refresh, and some of Falkirk’s more destitute areas could do with more attention, and in my opinion – city status is the way to achieve this. City status would give the town a chance to breathe new life, and make it a place of local pride, from the Kelpies, to the Forth Valley Hospital, to the M9, and Falkirk's suburban rail network it’s clear that Falkirk already functions as Scotland’s 9th city and we just need to give it a bit more attention and let it flourish. Falkirk and Travel Infrastructure. Falkirk has a surprisingly extensive amount of travel infrastructure for a town that supposedly has a population of around 34,000 people, for example, the M9, over 500km of shared-use cycleways, a bike hire scheme, the Falkirk Wheel, two “main” train stations in the town’s centre, suburban rail, and even trams! At least, as recently as 1936. Falkirk has 5 stations with regular service, vs. Aberdeen and Dundee, which only have 2 each in their respective council areas, Falkirk also has services to Edinburgh/Glasgow every 15 minutes at peak times, with an off-peak frequency of every 30 minutes. In terms of transport anyways, Falkirk certainly outweighs many other Scottish cities, even some of the “proper” ones, no matter the method, whether it be driving, walking/wheeling, cycling, or public transport. This reaffirms Falkirk’s position as Scotland’s 5th functional city – and likely its most impressive relative to population. Conclusion In conclusion, I believe as per my arguments in this essay, that Falkirk deserves a spot as Scotland’s 9th city, on the basis of it already functioning like a city, having the rich history and local culture one would expect from a city, being similar in size to Dundee when accounting for what “Falkirk” really is, and if Falkirk was given city status, it could thrive with the new attention put on it, giving it’s economy and industry a second life, and let it truly become the central belt’s third anchor.