Fife
Fìobha (Scottish Gaelic) | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 56°15′00″N 3°12′00″W / 56.25000°N 3.20000°W | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | Scotland |
Unitary authority | 1 April 1996 |
Administrative HQ | Fife House, Glenrothes |
Government | |
• Type | Council |
• Body | Fife Council |
• Control | No overall control |
• MPs | 4 MPs
|
• MSPs | 5 MSPs |
Area | |
• Total | 512 sq mi (1,325 km2) |
• Rank | 13th |
Population (2022)[2] | |
• Total | 371,340 |
• Rank | 3rd |
• Density | 700/sq mi (280/km2) |
Demonym | Fifer |
Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (BST) |
ISO 3166 code | GB-FIF |
GSS code | S12000047 |
Website | fife |
Fife (/faɪf/ FYFE, Scottish English: [fɐi̯f]; Scottish Gaelic: Fìobha [ˈfiːvə]; Scots: Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i.e., the historic counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire) and Clackmannanshire. By custom it is widely held to have been one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer. In older documents the county was very occasionally known by the anglicisation Fifeshire.
Fife is Scotland's 3rd largest local authority area by population. It had a resident population of 371,340 in 2022,[2] over a third of whom live in the three principal settlements, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes. On the northeast coast of Fife lies the historic town of St Andrews, home to the University of St Andrews—the most ancient university of Scotland and one of the oldest universities in the world—and the Old Course at St Andrews, considered the world's oldest golf course.