Scotland has rejected independence, despite the Yes campaign winning a majority in the largest city.
While Glasgow voted in favour of independence, the margin of victory was not large enough to give Alex Salmond and his campaign the momentum they need.
There were also wins for Yes in three of Scotland's 32 local authority areas - Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire.
While there was a comfortable majority in Dundee, the turnout in the city was 78.8 per cent - lower than many other parts of Scotland, indicating that the Yes campaign has not managed to get voters out in sufficient numbers.
The turnout in Glasgow was even lower at 75 per cent, with 194,779 Yes votes (53.49 per cent) and 169,347 No votes (46.51 per cent).
At the same time, nationalists conceded defeat in Alex Salmond's Aberdeenshire constituency.
"At the end of the day, you always prefer to win but we always knew the size of the mountain we had to climb in Aberdeenshire," SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson said.
"The challenge now bluntly, in Aberdeenshire and elsewhere, is for those who've won the referendum to deliver on the promises that they made to the people of Scotland."
SNP leader Mr Salmond had been expected to make an appearance at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) but instead went directly to Edinburgh from his home in Strichen.
As the early results came in, a senior member of the Westminster government declared that he believed the United Kingdom was "safe".
Prime Minister David Cameron is due to make a live TV address to the nation from 10 Downing Street, which is expected to set out not only proposals to devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament, but also significant changes to the constitutional settlement for other parts of the country.
Conservative Chief Whip Michael Gove, a close ally of the prime minister, indicated that this could involve reforms to ensure only English MPs can vote on English issues at Westminster.
The historic referendum looked set to break records for turnout, with figures as high as 91 per cent in East Dunbartonshire, 90.4 per cent in East Renfrewshire and 90.1 per cent in Stirling.
