Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
4,359 residents make their home in this town in the Aberdeen City council area, Scotland.
Pupils here do better than most (A+): school leavers’ results beat 99% of Scottish towns. Natural hazards weigh more here: 8.4% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Buying the median home, at £145,000, takes 3.4 years of household income in the Aberdeen City council area. A Band D home pays £1,748 in council tax.
Figures: flood risk, SEPA · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · incomes, ONS. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Peterculter without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Peterculter does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Peterculter is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Peterculter without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 9 buildings inside Peterculter’s locality, 1 of them in the top category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Peterculter.
There is one school here; it is shown below. The town’s primary school has 255 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Culter SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 255 | – |
Social renters account for 14% of households. Owners make up 72% of households, above Aberdeen City council area’s towns (55%) and Scotland’s towns (60%) alike. Only one of the 6 towns in the Aberdeen City council area costs less to buy into than Peterculter, whose median sale is £145,000.
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL · The Scottish median is our estimate from data-zone sales, brought to early-2025 prices.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 29% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Driving is how 79% of commuters got to work at the census. 1.7% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026, higher than Aberdeen City council area’s towns (1.6%) yet lower than Scotland’s towns (2.8%). For every resident in work, Peterculter has 0.4 jobs. Work in town: 7% of resident commuters.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Scaled to its population, Peterculter has 21 listed buildings per 10,000 people, higher than Aberdeen City council area’s towns (13) yet lower than Scotland’s towns (22).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Women here live to 83.4 on average and men to 78.2 (2020–24). 21% of residents in Peterculter live with a disability. Self-reported good health: just over four fifths of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Peterculter | Aberdeen City council area | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 82% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4% | 5.2% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 21% | 20% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Nearly two in five adults hold a degree, close to Aberdeen City council area’s towns (38%) and above Scotland’s towns (32%). People 65 and over make up nearly a quarter of the town. Peterculter has a median age of 46.9 years.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Peterculter | Aberdeen City council area | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.6% | 14% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 29% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 24% | 27% |
| 65+ | 24% | 17% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 13% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.1% | 6.9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9.6% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 39% | 38% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Aberdeen City council area and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Peterculter. Best known first.
Castle · National Trust for ScotlandDrum Castle3.3 km outside town, to the west
MuseumBlairs Museum3.2 km outside town, to the east
GardenDrum Castle Rose Garden3.1 km outside town, to the westTheme parkTheme parkThe Den & the Glen1.6 km outside town, to the southeastHistoric siteHistoric siteHawker Hunter MK1 N3154.6 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
9 listed buildings in Peterculter, 1 of them in the top category.
Parish Church of St. Peter Peterculter: Photo: Watty62 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kennerty Bridge: Photo: Stanley Howe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lower Kennerty Mill: Photo: Stephen Craven · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · St. Peter's Manse Peterculter.: Photo: OEJUTILA · CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest towns and villages, from National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peterculter | 4,359 | — | — | A− | — | C+ |
| Milltimber | 3,049 | 1.5 | — | C− | — | B+ |
| Westhill | 11,778 | 4 | — | A+ | — | A |
| Kingswells | 4,776 | 4.4 | — | C | — | B+ |
| Portlethen | 8,965 | 5.6 | — | A+ | — | B− |
| Newtonhill | 3,182 | 6.4 | — | A+ | — | A− |
| Aberdeen | 192,968 | 6.4 | — | A− | — | C− |
| Cove Bay | 7,926 | 6.7 | — | B+ | — | B− |
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.
GCSE results beat 99% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £145,000, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 221st most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in Aberdeen City, Scotland
Peterculter is a locality of 4,359 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
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.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.