The City of Edinburgh has more pubs and more liquor licences than any other council area in Scotland according to new government statistics.
The Scottish Liquor Licensing statistics, which provide a snapshot of licensed premises at the end of December 2007, lists Edinburgh as having 732 public houses and a total of 1,929 liquor licences in total. Glasgow by comparison had 715 pubs and 1,890 licenses in total.
That equates to 50 licenses per 10,000 population in Edinburgh. Glasgow and
East Lothian have 40 per 10,000 population, and West Lothian has 30.
Across Scotland
The total number of licenses held across Scotland - including hotels, restricted hotels, pubs, restaurants, off-sales, refreshment, and entertainment premises - measured 17.021 in total. The figure is 213 less than at 31st December 2006 and the equivalent of 42 licenses for every 10,000 persons aged 18 years and over in Scotland
The government's Chief Statistician notes that the spread of the types of licences in Scotland has been gradually widening over the last two decades. Since 1980, there has been a 20-fold increase in the number of refreshment licences, usually issued to cafe-style premises, from 34 to 673 and a 64 per cent increase in the number of restaurant licences, from 921 to 1,514. The number of hotel licences (excluding restricted hotels) decreased by 27 per cent from 2,959 to 2,174 over this period.
Over a third (37 per cent) of the licences in force in Scotland
were for off-sale premises and a further 30 per cent were for public
houses.
The number of off-sale licenses rose from 4,899 in 1980 to a peak of 6,397 in 1999, an increase of 31 per cent, and has remained fairly static since then, with 6,232 in 2007. Shops accounted for 52 per cent of known off-sale licences while supermarkets accounted for 9 per cent of known off-sale licences in 2007.