stylistic:tone, stylistic:style_transfer, linguistic:paraphrasing
Demographics

In the 1950s, the population of the City of Glasgow area peaked at 1,089,000. Glasgow was then one of the most densely populated cities in the world. After the 1960s, clearances of poverty-stricken inner city areas like the Gorbals and relocation to " new towns " such as East Kilbride and Cumbernauld led to population decline. In addition, the boundaries of the city were changed twice during the late-twentieth century, making direct comparisons difficult.

The urban area continues to expand beyond the city council boundaries into surrounding suburban areas, encompassing around 400 sq mi (1,040 km) of all adjoining suburbs, if commuter towns and villages are included. There are two distinct definitions for the population of Glasgow: the Glasgow City Council Area which lost the districts of Rutherglen and Cambuslang to South Lanarkshire in 1996, and the Greater Glasgow Urban Area which includes the conurbation around the city (however in the 2016 definitions the aforementioned Rutherglen and Cambuslang were included along with the likes of Paisley, Clydebank, Newton Mearns, Bearsden and Stepps but not others with no continuity of populated postcodes – although in some cases the gap is small – the excluded nearby settlements including Barrhead, Erskine and Kirkintilloch plus a large swathe of Lanarkshire which had been considered contiguous with Glasgow in previous definitions: the ' settlements ' named Coatbridge & Airdrie, Hamilton and Motherwell & Wishaw, each containing a number of distinct smaller localities).

Glasgow's population influx in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was related to economic expansion as well as internally generated growth with the vast majority of newcomers to the city from outside Scotland being from Ireland, especially the north western counties of Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry. In the 1881 UK Census, 83% of the population was born in Scotland, 13% in Ireland, 3% in England and 1% elsewhere. By 1911, the city was no longer gaining population by migration. The demographic percentages in the 1951 UK census were: born in Scotland 93%, Ireland 3%, England 3% and elsewhere 1%. In the early twentieth century, many Lithuanian refugees began to settle in Glasgow and at its height in the 1950s; there were around 10,000 in the Glasgow area. Many Italian Scots also settled in Glasgow, originating from provinces like Frosinone in Lazio and Lucca in north-west Tuscany at this time, many originally working as " Hokey Pokey " men.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many Asians also settled in Glasgow, mainly in the Pollokshields area. These number 30,000 Pakistanis, 15,000 Indians and 3,000 Bangladeshis as well as Chinese people, many of whom settled in the Garnethill area of the city. The city is also home to some 8,406 (1.42%) Poles. Since 2000, the UK government has pursued a policy of dispersal of asylum seekers to ease pressure on social housing in the London area. In 2023, 88% of the near 5,100 asylum seekers in the whole of Scotland were living in Glasgow.

Since the United Kingdom Census 2001 the population decline has been reversed. The population was static for a time; but due to migration from other parts of Scotland as well as immigration from overseas, the population has begun to grow. The population of the city council area was 593,245 in 2011 and around 2,300,000 people live in the Glasgow travel to work area. This area is defined as consisting of over 10% of residents travelling into Glasgow to work and is without fixed boundaries.

The population density of London following the 2011 census was recorded as 5,200 people per square kilometre, while 3,395 people per square kilometre were registered in Glasgow. In 1931, the population density was 16,166/sq mi (6,242/km), highlighting the "clearances" into the suburbs and new towns that were built to reduce the size of one of Europe's most densely populated cities.

In 2005, Glasgow had the lowest life expectancy of any UK city at 72.9 years. Much was made of this during the 2008 Glasgow East by-election. In 2008, a World Health Organization report about health inequalities, revealing that male life expectancy varied from 54 years in Calton to 82 years in nearby Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire.