Strathclyde (Srath Chluaidh in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde", pronounced [s̪t̪ra xɫ̪ɯi]) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994. The Strathclyde region had 19 districts.
The area was on the west coast of Scotland and stretched from the Highlands in the north to the Southern Uplands in the south. As a local government region, its population, in excess of 2.5 million, was the largest of the regions. The Region was responsible for education (from nursery to colleges); social work; police; fire; sewage; strategic planning; roads; transport - and, therefore, employed almost 100,000 public servants (almost half were teachers, lecturers and others in the education service).
The regional administrative headquarters was in the City of Glasgow and politics were by and large dominated by the Labour Party. The first regional council convener was the Reverend Geoff Shaw, who died in 1978. It was largely due to his leadership that the Region forged its innovative strategy on multiple deprivation, which remained its central commitment to the end of the Region's life through "Social Strategy for the Eighties" (1982) and "SS for the 90s".