Created in 2007, the ward elects three councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system and covers an area with a population of 13,165 people The ward has been a Conservative stronghold with the party winning two of the three seats in 2007 and 2017.

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2007 Scottish local elections.

As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so Clydesdale East was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards.

Clydesdale East covers a large, rural and sparsely populated area in the southern- and eastern-most parts of South Lanarkshire next to its boundaries with Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Borders, West Lothian and East Ayrshire.

[2] Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections, the ward's boundaries were not changed.