Alcohol Prohibition Areas in Scotland, 480+ Towns and Villages

Scotland has 27 local authorities with by-laws prohibiting alcohol consumption in designated public places. These by-laws cover more than 480 towns and villages, plus built-up areas in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and range from total bans to restrictions at specified times or days. The data is provided by the Scottish Government via SpatialData.gov.scot and was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Mapping alcohol-free zones based on the described geographic coverage of towns, villages, and city areas.
• Analyzing the prevalence and types of local by-laws (total bans vs. time-specific) across Scottish authorities.
• Modeling the relationship between local authority decisions and public space characteristics mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Covers 27 local authorities across Scotland, providing a broad administrative scope.
• Includes more than 480 towns and villages plus major city areas, indicating detailed geographic coverage.
• Describes a range of by-law types, from total bans to time-specific restrictions.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and spatial precision require manual inspection.

Provenance

Source

Scottish Government SpatialData.gov.scot

Collection Method

Likely compiled from local authority by-law submissions under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

Time Range

Current as of April 2026; temporal coverage of by-laws is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-24 22:04:21.349278; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Scotland, covering more than 480 towns and villages and built-up areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh.