The constituency location is in northern Lanarkshire, to the north of Bothwell and to the east of Glasgow. From 1885 until 1983 Coatbridge and Airdrie were linked for parliamentary purposes. The seat was named Coatbridge and Airdrie after 1950.
In the 1885-1918 period the area formed the county constituency of Coatbridge. In the 1918 redistribution the burgh constituency of Coatbridge was created. The seat was defined in 1918 as comprising the burghs of Airdrie and Coatbridge.
The change in the constituency name in 1950 did not affect the boundaries. Apart from a small boundary change to Airdrie, which took effect for parliamentary purposes in 1955, its boundaries did not alter until the areas parliamentary representation was remodelled in 1983.
From the 1983 general election the area was divided between two new seats. It provided the majority of the electorate for both Monklands East and Monklands West. 34,802 electors in the old seat were included in the new East constituency (57.1% of the old seat and 72.2% of the new one). 26,148 voters found themselves in Monklands West (42.9% of the old seat and 53.4% of the new one).
