55.8610° N, 4.2512° W
GLASGOW
Most Famous People Born in Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Notable people
- 3,305
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1943
- Most distinctive
- Football 3.8×
A football city, almost unhealthily so. More than forty per cent of Glasgow's notables are footballers — Old Firm shaped a city's entire celebrity economy — and the next bench down is the actors and singers of a Scottish stage tradition that has produced James McAvoy, Robbie Coltrane, and Mark Knopfler. The 19th-century Clyde shipbuilding boom is the peak that most of the rest of the bench grew out of, and there is also an unusually deep comedy lineage from the working men's clubs that the strict statistical panel doesn't capture but that gave the world Billy Connolly.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Glasgow during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 337 notable births.
What Glasgow Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Glasgow's biggest profession — 42% of all notables (1,378).
Glasgow over-indexes on football — 3.8× the global rate.
Glasgow under-produces writer — only 0.6× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Glasgow's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1830s Clear ×
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
1836 - 1908
Christopher Dresser
1834 - 1904
Madeleine Smith
1835 - 1928
Clinton D. MacDougall
1839 - 1914
James Kennedy Patterson
1833 - 1922
John L. MacDonald
1838 - 1903
George Alexander (American politician)
1839 - 1923
John Stewart Kennedy
1830 - 1909
Daniel Cottier
1837 - 1891
John Bryce
1833 - 1913
Thomas Forrester (architect)
1838 - 1907
Duncan Gillies
1834 - 1903
Flora Stevenson
1839 - 1905
Louisa Stevenson
1835 - 1908
Wilsone Black
1837 - 1909
Hely Hutchinson Almond
1832 - 1903
Arthur Renwick
1837 - 1908
Archibald Campbell Lawrie
1837 - 1914
Alexander C. Stuart
1831 - 1898
John Monteith (footballer)
1833 - 1918
John McDermond
1832 - 1868
Francis Farquharson
1837 - 1875
Thomas Christie (Canadian politician)
1834 - 1902
Alexander McKenzie (Medal of Honor)
Born 1837
James Cleland (politician)
1839 - 1908
James Park (VC)
1835 - 1858
Andrew Semple
1837 - 1916
Robert Macauley (Wisconsin)
1838 - 1904
Peter McLean (politician)
1837 - 1924
Robert Stewart (Australian politician)
1831 - 1908