The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) is an unbiased 870um submillimetre survey of the inner Galactic plane (|l|<60{deg} with |b|=1000M_{sun} at a heliocentric distance of 20kpc) and includes representative samples of all of the earliest embedded stages of high-mass star formation. Here, we present the first detailed census of the properties (velocities, distances, luminosities and masses) and spatial distribution of a complete sample of ~8000 dense clumps located in the Galactic disc (5{deg}<|l|1000M{sun} decreasing to ~1x10^4^yr for clump masses >10000M{sun}_. We find a strong correlation between the fraction of clumps associated with massive stars and peak column density. The fraction is initially small at low column densities, but reaching 100 per cent for column densities above 10^23^cm^x2^; there are no clumps with column densities above this value that are not already associated with massive star formation. All of the evidence is consistent with a dynamic view of star formation wherein the clumps form rapidly and are initially very unstable so that star formation quickly ensues.
Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/473/1059/table2 (Derived distance measurements to all ATLASGAL clumps in the study)
Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/473/1059/table8 (Derive positions and properties for all clump associations (clusters))
