English is the nearly universal language. Fewer than 1,000 people, primarily in the far north, still speak only Gaelic, and fewer than 80,000 speak Gaelic in addition to English. The eight universities are Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Andrews, Dundee, Stirling, Strathclyde, and Heriot-Watt. Economy Most Scottish industry and commerce is concentrated in a few large cities on the waterways of the central lowlands. Edinburgh, on the Firth of Forth, is a cultural center, the administrative capital of Scotland, and a center of paper production and publishing.
Tourism is also very important.
The significance of coal, once Scotland's most important mineral resource, has declined. Oil, however, gained prominence in Scotland's economy during the 1970s, with the growth of North Sea oil extraction companies. Natural gas is also abundant in the North Sea fields. Aberdeen is the center of the oil industry. Textiles, beer, and whisky, which are among Scotland's chief exports, are produced in many towns.