It meets at Aberdeen Town House and has its main offices at the neighbouring Marischal College.

A separate police commission was established in 1795 with powers to levy taxes and provide infrastructure ('police' in this context being its older meaning of civic government rather than law enforcement).

From 1818 until 1871 there was a dual system of local government, with the town council and police commission having different roles in Aberdeen's administration.

When elected county councils were created in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, Aberdeen Corporation was deemed capable of running county-level local government functions, and so the burgh was excluded from the area administered by Aberdeenshire County Council.

[10][11] The city boundaries were subsequently enlarged several times, gaining further territory from both Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire, notably in 1935, 1952 and 1970.

[21] Following the May 2007 election, contested for the first time using a system of proportional representation, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party (SNP) formed a coalition to run the council, holding 27 of the 43 seats (following an SNP by election gain from the Conservatives on 16 August 2007, the coalition held 28 of the 43 seats).

After the May 2012 election, the control of the council shifted back to the Labour Party, supported in a coalition by three Conservative and three Independent councillors, giving the administration 23 seats.

Between 2017 and 2021 the council had Co-Leaders Douglas Lumsden (Conservative) and Jenny Laing (“Aberdeen Labour”) as a result of the coalition agreement.

Following Douglas Lumsden's election to the Scottish Parliament in May 2021 Jenny Laing became sole Leader of the council.

[23] After the 2022 election the SNP and Liberal Democrats agreed to form a partnership to lead the Council for the next five years.

This system was introduced as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, and is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.

[30] As of 4 May 2017, the current wards and representative numbers are:[31] Note: The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007.

This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.