GLASGOW has 170 teenage gangs - more than London despite a population one-sixth the size, says a report.

It also warned the city's economic regeneration was being blighted by "appalling" levels of social deprivation.

Life expectancy in the poorest parts of Glasgow is 25 years shorter than the wealthiest; education achievement is the second worst in Scotland; and drug and alcohol abuse are at epidemic levels, it says.

The report is by the Centre of Social Justice, an ideas group led by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

In a section on law and order, the report notes the city accounted for nearly one in five crimes recorded in Scotland in 2006-07.

"Within minutes of the start of 2006, seven teenagers had been stabbed in Glasgow," it said.

"There are estimated to be more than 170 gangs in the Glasgow city region - this compares to 169 identified by the Metropolitan Police Service in London.

"By Glasgow's ratio of gangs to population, there would be over 1000 gangs in London."

The report sums up many of Glasgow's problems by using the tag Shettleston Man.

"Shettleston Man is the collective name given for a group of men in Shettleston," it said. "His life expectancy is 63, he lives in social housing, and is terminally out of work. His white blood cell count is killing him due to the stress of living in deprivation."

The report, Breakthrough Glasgow, was being launched at a conference in the city today and is the third in a series on the social challenges facing big cities.

Mr Duncan Smith's interest in Glasgow stems from a 2003 visit to Easterhouse, when he saw efforts to fight community breakdown due to poverty, crime and drugs.

The report says central Glasgow has the highest mortality rate in Scotland; some 110,000 working-age Glaswegians are without work; the proportion claiming Incapacity Benefit is the highest of all the UK's major cities; and the proportion of youngsters without work, education or training is around 18% -roughly twice as much as in Manchester.

But the report also highlights and praises the work of "largely unsung" voluntary projects and workers battling to help the deprived.