They include some of the most desirable areas across Scotland to live - and that standing has been reflected in each local authority area being rated on factors such as their education, health and community services.
A survey of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, carried out by The Sunday Times, has revealed a huge variation in public service performance across the country. Some councils recycled twice as much as others, while some residents are half as likely to have their first cancer treatment within 62 days as those in other areas.
The rankings used 11 indicators from five key categories - education, health, community, policing and finance - and weighting was applied by population size and the importance of each category, with health and education deemed the most important.
Three councils, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and the Western Isles, were scored separately because of a huge variation in population size and different methods of data collection.
Highland Council, the largest local authority by area in the UK, emerged as having the worst public services in Scotland, ranking ranked bottom for both health and education, and also performed poorest for literacy. East Renfrewshire came top for education and community, while Ayrshire as a general region was a strong performer. The best performing area for crime was Aberdeenshire.
Magnus Llewellin, editor of The Times and Sunday Times Scotland: “We all understand that where you live has a huge bearing on your quality of life. But quantifying those differences across areas such as health, education, community and crime isn’t readily available for readers.
“That is why the Sunday Times has carried out this analysis across Scotland. It gives people a measure of the differences which, in a number of cases, are stark.”
Here are the top ten council areas in order of how they ranked overall.
1. East Dunbartonshire
Boclair is another state secondary school in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire. In the 2022/23 school year, 74 per cent of the school's students attained five or more Highers. The council as a whole rated as the second best performed local authority in Scotland, ranking second top on education, and fourth and fifth best on health and finance respectively | Google Maps
2. South Ayrshire
Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire. The authority ranks as the third best performing council area overall in Scotland, according to the Sunday Times ratings system. South Ayrshire leads the way in the health category, based on outcomes as rated by Public Health Scotland statistics | Getty Images
3. Inverclyde
An overhead drone photo of Gourock Pool. The community sits within Inverclyde Council, which ranked as the fourth best council area to live in Scotland. The local authority rated as the third best in the area of finance, and fourth best on health | John Devlin
4. Stirling
Wind turbines dominate the hillside behind Stirling Castle. The council area has ranked as the fifth best performing in Scotland, ranking highest on education (fourth overall) and finance (seventh overall) | Getty Images