Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,685 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Council tax at Band D comes to £1,686.
Buying a home costs less than in most towns (A+): a typical home costs £222,800 and rent runs £869 a month. School results are strong (B+): school leavers’ results beat 75% of Scottish towns. Hazard risk is higher than most (D): 7.1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. The rest of its grades are middling: C+ for health and B for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, SEPA · life expectancy, ONS · commuting, Census 2022. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Insch without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Insch 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 Insch is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Insch without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 5 buildings inside Insch’s locality, 2 of them in the second category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Insch.
71% of households own their home, close to Aberdeenshire’s towns (70%) and above Scotland’s towns (60%). Behind the median of £222,800: 114 sales in Insch’s data zones, 2023 to 2025. Social renters account for nearly a fifth of households.
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.
Its only school is listed below. 307 pupils attend Insch’s one primary school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insch SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 307 | – |
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.
The car carried 79% of commuters at the census. At the census, 16% went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport, below both Aberdeenshire’s towns (17%) and Scotland’s towns (27%). About nearly a tenth of its commuters stay in Insch for work. There are 0.3 jobs in Insch for each resident in work.
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.
The national list protects one ancient monument in Insch. Per 10,000 residents, Insch counts 19 listed buildings, lower than both Aberdeenshire’s towns (23) and Scotland’s towns (22).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
83% of Insch’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, near Aberdeenshire’s towns (83%) and higher than Scotland’s towns (78%). A disability affects 22% of people in the town. Also worth knowing: life expectancy here is 82.1 for women and 80.8 for men (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | Insch | Aberdeenshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 83% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.1% | 4.5% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 22% | 20% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · 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.
The 65-and-over age group makes up 23% of residents. Young adults of 15 to 24 are 7.1% of residents, below Aberdeenshire’s towns (9.7%) and Scotland’s towns (12%) alike. Typical age in Insch: 42.2, the median.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Insch | Aberdeenshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 22% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 7.1% | 9.7% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 27% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 16% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 10% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 31% | 29% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Aberdeenshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Insch. Best known first.
CastleDunnideer Castle1.2 km outside town, to the west
CastleLeslie Castle3.8 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleLickleyhead Castle3.7 km outside town, to the southFortFortHill of Dunnideer1.2 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
3 notable people were born in Insch.
Philip Clemo: Philip Clemo, CC BY-SA 3.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insch | 2,685 | — | — | A+ | — | C+ |
| Alford | 2,792 | 8.3 | — | A+ | — | A− |
| Inverurie | 15,115 | 9.4 | — | A+ | — | C+ |
| Kemnay | 3,864 | 9.7 | — | A+ | — | C |
| Huntly | 4,628 | 9.8 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Oldmeldrum | 3,181 | 11 | — | A+ | — | C+ |
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.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Insch is £1,686 for 2026–27, less than in 91% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
GCSE results beat 75% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
Town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Insch is a locality of 2,685 people, in the Aberdeenshire 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.