The Argyll and Bute constituency is part of the Highlands and Islands electoral region; the other seven constituencies are Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Inverness and Nairn, Moray, Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Orkney, Shetland and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch.

[2] The Holyrood constituency covers most of the Argyll and Bute council area.

The rest of the council area (which includes the town of Helensburgh) is covered by the Dumbarton constituency in the West Scotland electoral region.

From the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, boundary changes altered the existing Argyll and Bute constituency.

All but three electoral wards of the Argyll and Bute council area were used in the creation of the new seat, namely: As of 2019, Argyll and Bute's population (60,394) was the lowest among the 70 Holyrood mainland constituencies, barely two-thirds of the total of those at the top of the list, headed by Linlithgow which had over 95,000 within its boundaries.