Fife

This article is about the area in Scotland. For the musical instrument, see Fife (instrument). For other uses, see Fife (disambiguation).

"Fifeshire" redirects here. For other uses, see Fifeshire (disambiguation).

Fife Fìobha (Scottish Gaelic)
Lieutenancy and council area
Crail in the East Neuk, Dunfermline Abbey, and the Bunnet Stane
Fife shown within Scotland
Coordinates: 56°15′00″N 3°12′00″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 Graeme Downie (L) Wendy Chamberlain (LD) Richard Baker (L) Melanie Ward (L)
• MSPs	5 MSPs Annabelle Ewing (SNP) Jenny Gilruth (SNP) Willie Rennie (LD) Shirley-Anne Somerville (SNP) David Torrance (SNP)
Area
• Total	512 sq mi (1,325 km2)
• Rank	13th
Population  (2024)
• Total	374,760
• Rank	3rd
• Density	730/sq mi (283/km2)
Demonym	Fifer
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
ISO 3166 code	GB-FIF
GSS code	S12000047
Website	fife.gov.uk

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Fife (/faɪf/ FYFE, Scottish English: [fɐi̯f]; Scottish Gaelic: Fìobha [ˈfiːvə]; Scots: Fife) is a council area and lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the south, Clackmannanshire to the south-west, and Perth and Kinross to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Dunfermline, and the administrative centre is Glenrothes.

Fife has an area of 512 square miles (1,330 km²) and had a resident population of 374,760 in 2024, making it Scotland's 3rd largest local authority area by population. The population is concentrated in the south, which contains Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes. The north is less densely populated, and the largest town is St Andrews on the north-east coast. The area is governed by the unitary Fife Council. It covers the same area as the historic county and former region of the same name.

Fife was one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland. The University of St Andrews is the oldest of the ancient universities of Scotland and one of the oldest universities in the world, and the Old Course at St Andrews the world's oldest golf course. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer.