James Cleland LLD (1770–1840) was Superintendent of Public Works in Glasgow but is remembered as a Scottish statistician and historical writer.

During his year as a Glasgow baillie in 1806–07,[1] Cleland prepared a report on the structural problems of the Episcopal chapel, St Andrew's-by-the-Green.

In 1819 he was employed by the municipal authorities in taking a census of Glasgow, the most ambitious in the United Kingdom.

The "Cleland Testimonial" building in Buchanan Street, Glasgow, was designed by David Hamilton and was completed in 1836.

[6] He lived his final years at 130 West Nile Street in central Glasgow[7] and died there in 1840.