Edinburgh named Scotland’s ‘smartest’ city

EDINBURGH has emerged as Scotland’s best educated city with an east-west split emerging across the country, according to the latest census figures.

Graduates from Edinburgh Napier University. The capital is Scotland's most educated city. Picture: Ian Rutherford

More than a third of residents in the capital (41.4%) have university degrees or an equivalent qualification, according to the latest data released today.

This compares with large parts of the west of Scotland where about a third of residents have no qualifications at all.

32% of those Glasgow have no formal qualifications, with similar numbers in East Ayrshire (34.1%), North Lanarkshire (33%) and West Dunbartonshire (32.8%).

The percentage of university graduates in Edinburgh is some way ahead of East Renfrewshire which is next on the list with 35.2% of residents holding a degree or equivalent. East Dunbartonshire (34.8%), Stirling (33.3%) and Aberdeen (33.2%) make up the top five.

The largest category of occupations in Scotland was “professionals” which employed about 17% of working Scots - about 422,000. Within this category the highest level was nurses.

A major gender divide still exists across in some professions, the figures show.

Around nine times as many men than women work in skilled trades and occupations, and seven times as many men work as process, plant and machine operatives than their female counterparts.