Understanding Scottish Places

Greenock, Inverclyde

Population 42,866

View Greenock on map

Greenock is in Inverclyde. Its history is linked to its location. As early as the 12th century it was recognised as a safe anchorage. It developed as a fishing village to become a trading port exporting herring. From the 18th century it emerged as a port trading across the Atlantic and importing sugar and tobacco. Related processing activities such as sugar refining (Tate and Lyle closed in 1997) followed. In wartime torpedoes were manufactured and the Atlantic convoys used the port. The heavy industries (especially shipbuilding) of the post-war years have now declined. Electronic industries developed (IBM, Texas Instruments, Lenovo and Sanmina) but have now gone elsewhere and service industries such as call centres have opened.

In large towns, people in this group experience more challenging circumstances with higher rates of unemployment, poorer health, lack of a car, lower levels of education and lower social grades than other groups. A higher proportion live in social rented housing. There is a higher proportion of single person households and lone parents.

Greenock is an interdependent to independent town.

Its most similar towns are Alloa, Clydebank, Coatbridge, and Irvine.

To gain more insight into Greenock, compare it to any of the other towns included in USP.

Inter-relationships

Dependent
Interdependent
Independent

Number of jobs

4
Type average 4

Diversity of jobs

0
Type average 2

Distance travelled to work

4
Type average 3

Number of public sector jobs

2
Type average 3

Number of hospitals

-2
Type average -3

Number of GP's and dentists

-2
Type average -1

Number of children in primary schools

-4
Type average -1

Number of children in secondary schools

-4
Type average -2

Distance travelled to study

4
Type average 3

Number of shops

4
Type average 3

Diversity of retail offer

6
Type average 5

Number of charities

Type average -1
Dependent
Interdependent
Independent

Change

Public

Education (% all people aged 16 and over)

  No education Standard grade or equivalent Higher grade or equivalent HNC, HND, SVQ4 Degree or higher degree
Greenock 23.36678555 21.37071134 9.883608416 25.07257195 20.30079345

Commercial

Distance travelled to study

  At home Up to 5km 5 to 10km 10 to 30km 30km and over
Greenock 3.5342695842859144 10.878085195726216 0.8001679652871739 0.7301824289646807 1.0661130033126487

Environment Indicators

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Download all of the Greenock data in PDF format.

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Discover

To gain more insight into Greenock, compare it to any of the other towns included in USP.

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Footnotes