Strathclyde (Ystrad Clud in Welsh; Srath Chluaidh [s̪t̪ɾa ˈxl̪ˠɯi] in Gaelic, meaning 'strath [valley] of the River Clyde') was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 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 region was named after the early medieval Kingdom of Strathclyde centred on Govan, but covered a broader geographic area than its namesake.

The Strathclyde region was created in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which established a two-tier structure of local government across Scotland comprising upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. Strathclyde covered the whole area of six counties and parts of another two, which were all abolished for local government purposes at the same time:

The region was named after the ancient British or Brythonic Damnonii Kingdom of Strathclyde. The kingdom had broadly covered the southern part of the local government region created in 1975, thus with the Argyll and Buteshire parts not having been within the ancient kingdom. Conversely, the kingdom had included areas further to the south, which were never part of the post-1975 Strathclyde (Dumfries and Galloway, as well as Cumbria in England).

Strathclyde Regional Council was responsible for education, social work, police, fire, sewage, strategic planning, roads, and transport. It employed almost 100,000 public servants, almost half of whom were teachers, lecturers and others in the education service.

Strathclyde region was abolished in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 which replaced regions and districts with unitary council areas. The region was divided into twelve council areas: Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City (created as City of Glasgow), Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, and West Dunbartonshire (created as Dumbarton and Clydebank)

The Strathclyde region was on the west coast of Scotland and stretched from the Highlands in the north to the Southern Uplands in the south. It included some of the Inner Hebrides in the north-west but also contained Scotland's largest urban area of Glasgow. As a local government region, its population, in excess of 2.5 million, was by far the largest of the regions and contained half of the population of Scotland.

Politics in the region were 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 regional council 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".

The first election to Strathclyde Regional Council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new system came into force on 16 May 1975. Throughout the council's existence Labour held a majority of the seats: