Glasgow, Scotland
What Glasgow is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 22,461 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
22,461 businesses on file · 142 trades · 118 sectors · · built from geonet.glasgow on 2026-11-07
largest city in Scotland
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Glasgow → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.
The local economy
What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.
Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.
Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.
What this city is specialised in
Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 2 UK metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.
Thin against the national pattern
Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.
| Industry group | LQ | Businesses | Entry signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6214 Out-patient care centres | 0.27 | 8 | Caution |
| 5415 Computer systems design and related services — IT Services & Systems Integration | 0.31 | 46 | Caution |
| 4453 Beer, wine and liquor retailers — Private Liquor Retail | 0.33 | 22 | Structure decides |
| 4595 Used merchandise retailers — Used Merchandise & Resale Retail | 0.41 | 18 | Caution |
| 4594 Office supplies, stationery and gift retailers — Office Supplies & Gift Shop | 0.44 | 12 | Caution |
| 7139 Other amusement and recreation industries — Golf Course Acquisition | 0.52 | 15 | Caution+6 more |
| 8121 Personal care services | 0.58 | 33 | Caution+1 more |
| 7223 Special food services — Catering & Mobile Food Services | 0.58 | 31 | Caution |
The base against the entry screen
Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.
How to read the survival figure
Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.
Weighted over 99.4% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And what it does not measure
A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.
Who lives here, and who the city is for
The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.
No census subdivision is mapped for uk-glasgow in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.
The communities the register shows
A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.
| Community | Institutions | Worship | Trade | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish | 51 | 10 | 244 | institutions on Hampden Park (3) · West George Street (2) · Bath St (2) trade on Shops (6) · Waterloo Street (3) · Great Western Road (3) · Superstores (2)
Scottish Youth Hostels Association · Scottish Independent Book Makers Association · Scottish Bookmakers Protection Association |
| Jewish | 2 | 1 | 6 |
Jewish Representative Council · Glasgow Jewish Housing Association |
| Chinese | 1 | 1 | 42 | trade on Crow Road (2) · Tollcross Road (2) · Dumbarton Road (2)
Glasgow Chinese Christian Church |
| French | 1 | — | 10 |
Alliance Francaise de Glasgow |
| Islamic | 1 | — | 7 | trade on Mosque Avenue (2)
Muslim Elderly Day Care Centre |
| Greek | 1 | 1 | 6 |
Greek Orthodox Church |
| Persian | 1 | — | — |
Iranian Scottish Association |
| Dutch | — | — | 13 | trade on Scotland Street (2)
|
| Italian | — | — | 9 | |
| Irish | — | — | 7 | |
| Polish | — | — | 5 | |
| Turkish | — | — | 5 | |
| Thai | — | — | 4 | |
| German | — | — | 3 | |
| Welsh | — | — | 3 | |
| South Asian | — | — | 2 | |
| Swiss | — | — | 2 | |
| Caribbean | — | — | 2 | |
| Spanish-speaking | — | — | 1 | |
| Russian | — | — | 1 | |
| Norwegian | — | — | 1 | |
| Swedish | — | — | 1 | |
| Indigenous | — | — | 1 |
Where the communities are
Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.
Scottish
Chinese
Islamic
What the city is made of
Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 22,461 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | 619 | 2.8% | association (285) · accounting (177) · consulting (68) · bank (31) · government (19) · auction (12) · foundation (11) · vending (10) |
| Construction | 597 | 2.7% | plumbing (139) · painting (106) · roofing (94) · machinery (80) · heating and cooling (59) · electrician (46) · flooring (32) · carpet (26) |
| Living | 557 | 2.5% | place of worship (196) · furniture (83) · cleaning (81) · property (62) · appliances (36) · fire safety (31) · veterinary (21) · daycare (16) |
| Education | 538 | 2.4% | school (381) · library (90) · garden (63) · writing (4) |
| advertising | 463 | 2.1% | bankruptcy (1) |
| Dining | 384 | 1.7% | restaurant (268) · fast food (72) · pizza (25) · diner (10) · chinese restaurant (5) · steakhouse (2) · mexican food (1) · pubs (1) |
| Retail | 314 | 1.4% | flowers (93) · jeweler (70) · photography (60) · department store (21) · antiques (18) · gifts (12) · discount store (11) · pet supply (10) |
| Finance | 302 | 1.3% | insurance (136) · bank (96) · mortgage (57) · loans (5) · credit union (5) · garden (2) · landscaping (1) |
| engineer | 288 | 1.3% | |
| legal | 280 | 1.2% | |
| cafes | 271 | 1.2% | |
| Travel | 267 | 1.2% | travel agent (144) · hotel (107) · parking (7) · motel (5) · airline (3) · bnb (1) |
| construction | 264 | 1.2% | |
| Automotive | 258 | 1.1% | autos (214) · tires (28) · auto repair (8) · auction (3) · scooter (2) · real estate (1) · auto parts (1) · detailing (1) |
| Food | 206 | 0.9% | grocer (107) · baker (47) · catering (31) · seafood (7) · ice cream (7) · fruit (5) · real estate (1) · bank (1) |
| consulting | 176 | 0.8% | |
| emergency | 170 | 0.8% | credit union (1) |
| Beauty | 160 | 0.7% | dentist (126) · hair stylist (33) · orchard (1) |
| bars | 156 | 0.7% | |
| beautysalons | 153 | 0.7% |
The franchises already here
Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.
52 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.
| Brand | Category | Here | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Bank | bank | 23 | — |
| Royal Mail | post | 17 | 14,300 |
| Salvation Army | retail | 13 | — |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 10 | 10,000 |
| Costa Coffee | coffee | 9 | 755 |
| Thomas Cook | travel | 8 | 700 |
| Burger King | fastfood | 7 | 11,000 |
| Blockbuster Video | video | 5 | 5,900 |
| Holiday Inn | businesshotel | 4 | — |
| Enterprise Rent A Car | car | 3 | 5,400 |
| La Senza | lingerie | 3 | — |
| The Body Shop | retail | 3 | — |
| Best Western | businesshotel | 2 | 4,200 |
| Cartridge World | retail | 2 | 1,400 |
| Dunnes Stores | retail | 2 | 151 |
| Flight Centre | travel | 2 | 1,500 |
| Harley Davidson locations | motorcycle | 2 | — |
| Hollywood Video | video | 2 | 2,700 |
| House of Fraser | retail | 2 | — |
| Laura Ashley | retail | 2 | — |
| Sign-A-Rama | specialty | 2 | 800 |
| Sunglass Hut | retail | 2 | — |
| Whittard of Chelsea | retail | 2 | — |
| Abbey National | bank | 1 | — |
| Allied Irish Bank | bank | 1 | — |
| Bargain Shop | retail | 1 | 165 |
| Baskin Robbins | dessert | 1 | 2,800 |
| Calvin Klein | mensunderwear | 1 | — |
| Crystal Glass | auto | 1 | — |
| Disney Store | retail | 1 | — |
| Driving Force | car | 1 | 10 |
| Hertz Rent A Car | car | 1 | 7,000 |
| Hollywood Bowl | entertainment | 1 | 24 |
| JD Sports | retail | 1 | 400 |
| Kurt Geiger | retail | 1 | — |
| La Vie en Rose | retail | 1 | 150 |
| Links of London | retail | 1 | — |
| Nine West | retail | 1 | — |
| Polo Ralph Lauren | — | 1 | — |
| Shop 'n Save | supermarket | 1 | 37 |
| St. John | retail | 1 | — |
| Stop & Shop | supermarket | 1 | 360 |
| Thomas Pink | retail | 1 | 60 |
| Farmfoods name only | supermarket | 20 | 300 |
| Coach name only | luggage | 19 | — |
| Safeway name only | supermarket | 12 | 1,767 |
| Somerfield name only | supermarket | 12 | 1,132 |
| ASDA name only | supermarket | 10 | 243 |
| Tesco name only | retail | 10 | 1,780 |
| Starbucks name only | coffee | 9 | 3,500 |
| Burton name only | retail | 5 | — |
| Michaels name only | retail | 5 | 805 |
| Morrisons name only | supermarket | 5 | 368 |
| Roots name only | retail | 5 | 145 |
| Lexus name only | luxurycar | 4 | — |
| Limited name only | retail | 4 | — |
| Manor name only | retail | 4 | — |
| Armani name only | fashion | 3 | — |
| Borders name only | book | 3 | 559 |
| Honda name only | car | 3 | — |
| Primark name only | retail | 3 | 160 |
| Progressive name only | supermarket | 3 | 150 |
| Waterstones name only | retail | 3 | 193 |
| Benetton name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Debenhams name only | retail | 2 | 126 |
| Eason name only | retail | 2 | 58 |
| Europcar name only | car | 2 | 2,825 |
| Halfords name only | retail | 2 | 420 |
| HSBC name only | bank | 2 | — |
| Midas name only | auto | 2 | 1,800 |
| Mothercare name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Papyrus name only | retail | 2 | 170 |
| Peebles name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Renaissance name only | upscalehotel | 2 | — |
| Toyota name only | car | 2 | — |
| Travelodge name only | economyhotel | 2 | — |
| Bebe name only | retail | 1 | — |
| BestBuy name only | inc | 1 | 940 |
| Centra name only | convenience | 1 | 350 |
| Champion name only | supermarket | 1 | 1,000 |
| FastFrame name only | specialty | 1 | 300 |
| Hallmark name only | greetingcards | 1 | 5,600 |
| HomeBase locations name only | retail | 1 | 320 |
| Hyatt name only | upscalehotel | 1 | — |
| IKEA name only | retail | 1 | 250 |
| Jeep name only | suv | 1 | — |
| Krystal name only | fastfood | 1 | 400 |
| Lacoste name only | — | 1 | — |
| Londis name only | supermarket | 1 | 2,100 |
| MANGO name only | retail | 1 | 850 |
| Radisson name only | upscalehotel | 1 | — |
| Raffles name only | luxuryhotel | 1 | 8 |
| Stitches name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Versace name only | designerclothing | 1 | 61 |
| Wolford name only | retail | 1 | — |
Real estate as a local trade
Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.
Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.
Selling homes
5312Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.
Named in the register
- B I K Properties — 25 Sandyford Place
- Blackmill Properties — Castlehouse; Allanfauld Road
- D B I Properties — 82 Mitchell Street Glasgow
- Gcs Maintenance — 216 St Vincent Street
- Glasgow Property and Investment Centre — 251 Great Western Road
- L and D Design and Build — 18 Westminster Terrace
- Mitchell Properties — 23-24 Royal Crescent
- N C City and Home Secured — c/o James Sellars House; 144 West George Street
- NRBS Finance and Real Estate — 11 Bothwell Street
- Quality Guaranteed — 130 St Vincent Street
- R and R Properties Falkirk — 22 Baronhill; Cumbernauld
- Rainbow Room Properties — 125 Buchanan Street
- Redpath Bruce Property Management — 103 West Regent Street
- W and G Scotland — 17-21 Newton Street
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- Artroyd Apartments — 27 Watt Street
- Embassy Apartments — 8 Kelvin Drive
- Reith Lambert Facilities Management — c/o Wylie & Bisset; 135 Wellington Street
- The Ants African Network for Trade and Services Lt — 1037 Sauchiehall Street
Managing for owners
5313Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.
Named in the register
- Douglas Dickson Property Management — 3 Fitzroy Place; Sauchiehall Street
- G2 Property Management — 216 St Vincent Street
- Glasgow Business Park Management — The Ca'D'Oro; 45 Gordon Street
- Jones Lang Lasalle Scotland — Charlotte House; Queen Street
- Land Securities Properties — 302-304 St Vincent Street
- M C P I — Pollok Castle Estate; Newton Mearns
- Merchant Executive Properties — 26 Springfield Court
- Oakmount Properties — 216 St Vincent Street
- P and W Properties — 195 Edinburgh Road
- Ross and Liddell — 60 St Enoch Square
- Serco — Kentigern House Brown Street
- Stelmain — Turnberry House; 175 West George Street
- Walker Sandford Property Management — St Georges Building; 5 St Vincent Place
- Wilmac Management Services — 14 Chesterfield Avenue
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Craigieburn Roofing and Building Contractors — 40 Gorget Avenue; Knightswood
- Drake and Scull Scotland — 203 Woodville Street; Govan
- G M G Contractors — 142 Swinton Road; Baillieston
- Park Avenue Caravan Co — 77 Torrisdale Street
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- Anne and Lawrie Mortgages — 82 Mitchell Street
- Direct Mortgages Scotland — 10 Sandyford Pl, G3
- I C Loans — Central Chambers
- Independent Life and Mortgage Scotland — 19 Sandyford Place
- Metropolitan Tenants House Purchase Advisory Burea — 81 Berkeley Street
- Mortgage Advice Bureau — 83 Union Street
- Mortgage and Loan Services — Argyle Street
- Mortgage and Loans Services — 1007 Argyle Street
- Mortgage Management — Olympic House
- Mortgage Matters — 113 West Regent Street
- Mortgage Shops — 10 Brouster Gate; East Kilbride
- Mortgages PLC — PO Box 25173
- R C C Business Mortgages — Charles Oakley House; 125 West Regent Street
- Sloans — 62 Argyll Arcade
On "how many doors"
How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.
Work on the go, mobile services
The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.
A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 320 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.
The 320 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.
home services
construction
services
events
healthcare
pets
beauty
luxury
sporting goods
sports
business
outdoors
spas
travel
Schools and colleges
wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.
| Institution | Type | Students | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strathclyde | University | — | — |
| University of Glasgow | University | — | — |
In the business register
Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.
Health and care
What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.
Matched on the name "hospital"
- Hairmyres Hospital — Departments
- Royal Hospital for Sick Children — Yorkhill
- Queen Mothers Hospital — Yorkhill, G3
- Canniesburn Hospital — Switchback Road; Bearsden
- Drumchapel Hospital — 129 Drumchapel Road
- Drumchapel Health Centre — 80-90 Kinfauns Drive
- Cowglen Hospital — Boydstone Rd, G53
- Glasgow Dental Hospital and School — 378 Sauchiehall St, G2
- Hospital Saturday Fund
- Hospital Broadcasting Service — Baltic Chambers
- Bridgeton Health Centre — 201 Abercromby Street
- Pollock Health Centre — 21 Cowglen Road
- Pollok Health Centre Dental Practice — 21 Cowglen Road
- Easterhouse Health Centre — 9 Auchinlea Road
- Gorbals Health Centre — 45 Pine Place
- Govanhill Health Centre
- Govanhill Health Centre — 233 Calder Street
- Maryhill Health Centre — 41 Shawpark Street
- Springburn Health Centre — Springburn Health Centre
- Parkhead Health Centre Pharmacy — 101 Salamanca Street
- Bridgeton Health Centre Pharmacy — 201 Abercromby Street
- Crookfur Pet Health Centre — Harvie Avenue Shops; Newton Mearns
- PDSA Pet Aid Hospital — Muiryfauld Drive
- Kingston Hospital N H S Trust — 44 Nurseries Road; Baillieston
- Hospital Management and Supplies Glasgow — Unit 115 Carnegie Rd, Hillington G52
geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
- wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
- No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
- 0.1% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.
Built from
geonet.glasgow— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands