Strathclyde was one of the regional council areas of Scotland from 1974 to 1996. It was named after the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which covered broadly the same area.

Its largest city was Glasgow, and it was the largest region in the country, with a population in excess of 2 million and an area stretching from the Highlands to the Southern Uplands. The politics of the region were by in large dominated by the Labour Party. There were several districts under the region, these were Argyll and Bute, Bearsden and Milngavie, Clydebank, Clydesdale, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Cunninghame, Dumbarton, East Kilbride, Eastwood, Glasgow, Hamilton, Inverclyde, Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Kyle and Carrick, Monklands, Motherwell, Renfrew, and Strathkelvin.

The regional tier of government was abolished in 1996 and its responsibilities merged with the District Councils to create Unitary Authorities (of which there are 32 in Scotland). The name still remains in geographic use, and there is still a Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority, a Strathclyde Police Force , and a Strathclyde Fire Brigade .

The unitary authorities covering the area of Strathclyde are:

• Argyll and Bute
• East Ayrshire
• East Dunbartonshire
• East Renfrewshire
• City of Glasgow
• Inverclyde
• North Ayrshire
• North Lanarkshire
• Renfrewshire
• South Ayrshire
• South Lanarkshire
• West Dunbartonshire

Today, the name Strathclyde is also synonymous with one of its largest Universities, The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow which attracts thousands of international students to Scotland, making it an important centre of research and learning.