Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 3,276 people, this town lies in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Council tax at Band D comes to £1,686.
Homes are affordable: homes sell for a median £241,300, about 4.6 times local household income. It also does well on schools (A−): school leavers’ results beat just over three quarters of Scottish towns. Its other grades sit near the middle: B− for health and B for walkability. Natural hazards weigh less here than in most UK towns (A).
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · commuting, Census 2022 · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Laurencekirk without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Laurencekirk is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Laurencekirk without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 2 things Laurencekirk does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 10 buildings inside Laurencekirk’s locality, 5 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Laurencekirk.
74% of households own their home, above both Aberdeenshire’s towns (70%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). Private tenants account for 8% of households. Council and housing-body homes hold 18% 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.
Both of its schools are shown below. Some 1,063 pupils attend Laurencekirk’s one primary and one secondary. Its two schools are below.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laurencekirk SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 386 | – |
| Mearns AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 677 | B+ |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Category B covers 5 of them. Scaled to its population, that is 31 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in Laurencekirk.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 30% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
80% of commuters drove to work at the census. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 21%, below Aberdeenshire’s towns (37%) and Scotland’s towns (44%) alike. The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 1.9%.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
A disability affects a fifth of people in Laurencekirk. 3.9% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, lower than both Aberdeenshire’s towns (4.5%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%).
| Census 2022 | Laurencekirk | Aberdeenshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 83% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.9% | 4.5% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 20% | 20% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Ages in Laurencekirk split evenly at 43.7: half are older, half younger. The 15-to-24 age group makes up nearly one in ten residents. People 65 and over make up 22% of the town, close to Aberdeenshire’s towns (21%) and above Scotland’s towns (19%).
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Laurencekirk | Aberdeenshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.2% | 9.7% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 27% |
| 65+ | 22% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 16% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 10% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9.4% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 29% | 29% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Aberdeenshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
7 notable people were born in Laurencekirk.
James Beattie: Engraved by Ridley from a painting in the possession of James Beattie, Public domain · James Henderson: William Harnett Blanch (Life time: died 1899), Public domain
Town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Laurencekirk is a locality of 3,276 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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laurencekirk | 3,276 | — | — | A+ | — | B− |
| Montrose | 11,241 | 8 | — | A | — | D |
| Brechin | 7,180 | 9.9 | — | A | — | D |
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.
Band D council tax in Laurencekirk 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 76% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Laurencekirk has 2 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
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.