Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Aberdeen has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is walkability (A+): 32% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its weakest is health (C−): life expectancy 77 for men, 81.1 for women. The median home sold for £138,500 in the last three years, 3.3 times what households in the Aberdeen City council area earn in a year.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Aberdeen is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Aberdeen has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Aberdeen.
Work & commute
More people aged 16 to 64 in Aberdeen claim unemployment benefits than in Aberdeen City council area’s towns or Scotland’s towns: 4%
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 28% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
On this, Aberdeen is above both Aberdeen City council area’s towns (1.6%) and Scotland’s towns (2.8%). For 62% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
SchoolsB
Results at Aberdeen’s schools beat 57% of Scottish towns
Three of its 53 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.
Scottish Government · school statistics and leavers’ resultsSee all 53 schools →
Health
Life expectancy in Aberdeen is shorter than in 87% of UK towns
Women here live to 81.1 on average and men to 77 (2020–24). Aberdeen’s share in bad or very bad health, 5.4%, is the highest of the 6 towns in Aberdeen City council area. These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy and early deaths.
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL
HousingCost of living grade A−
Aberdeen is a renters’ town: 21% of households rent privately, more than in Aberdeen City council area’s towns or across Scotland’s towns
In the comparison, Aberdeen comes above both Aberdeen City council area’s towns (20%) and Scotland’s towns (13%). Owners make up 52% of households. No town in the Aberdeen City council area costs less to buy into than Aberdeen, at £138,500, the lowest of 6.
£139Kmedian sale
Median sale price · 2023 to 2025, at early-2025 prices
Aberdeen£139K
Typical UK town£277K
52%
of households own their home · Scotland 60%
21%
rent privately · Scotland 13%
£869
average private rent a month, Aberdeen and Shire council area
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL
History
1,086 listed buildings, 65 of them in the top category
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Aberdeen has 1,086 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 65 Category A, 608 Category B. No town in the Aberdeen City council area has more listed buildings for its size than Aberdeen. Of Aberdeen’s land, 12% lies in conservation areas, above both Aberdeen City council area’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%).
1,086listed buildings
Listed buildings by grade · Historic Environment Scotland
Annie Lennox: Library of Congress Life, CC0 · J. Michael Kosterlitz: US Embassy Sweden, CC BY 2.0 · Denis Law: Danny Molyneux, CC BY 2.0 · Rose Leslie: Suzi Pratt, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Harry Souttar: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0
Aberdeen’s neighbours
The nearest towns and villages, from National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities. See them on the map →
No Scottish town has a Safety Grade or an overall grade yet: Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime. People: Census 2022. Miles: centre to centre.
Questions about Aberdeen
How many listed buildings are there in Aberdeen?
That is 2.3 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Aberdeen Sheriff Court Annex and High Court of Justiciary (Formerly Bank Of Scotland), 53 Castle Street, Aberdeen. It also has 14 scheduled monuments.
Is Aberdeen expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £138,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 217th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Does Aberdeen flood?
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
About Aberdeen
City in Aberdeen City, Scotland
Aberdeen is a locality of 192,968 people, in the Aberdeen City council area. TownRatings uses National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities as Scotland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council area, so its figures cover the town itself. Localities split the big settlements into their towns, as ONS’s 2022 boundaries split conurbations in England and Wales.
Built from NRS geography and Census 2022
Population
192,968 (Census 2022)
Council
Aberdeen City
Nation
Scotland
Area
24.2 sq mi (62.7 km²)
NRS code
S52000002
Sources: Scotland’s Census 2022 (National Records of Scotland), output areas summed to the NRS 2022 locality · Registers of Scotland house price statistics, medians and quartiles of residential sales by 2022 data zone, 2004 to 2025 (the 2023 to 2025 headline brought to early-2025 prices with each council’s medians) · Scottish Government, Council Tax by band 2026-27; Scottish Water charges 2026-27 · Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland (crimes, offences and clear-up rates by council area, 2016-17 to 2025-26); Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (2014/15, 2017/18), 2011 data zones with Census 2022 residents · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils, with Scotland’s Census 2022 households · DWP / ONS Claimant Count via Nomis (2022 data zones, January to August 2026), over residents aged 16 to 64 at Scotland’s Census 2022; council series since 2015 · Scottish Government school contact list (31 July 2026) and school summary statistics (pupil census, September 2025); School Information Dashboard leavers’ attainment by school, 2022-23 to 2024-25 (data.gov.scot) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
