Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,783 in council tax. 14,128 people live in this town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
Helensburgh is easy to get around without a car (A): on the way to work, 26% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Health lags: life expectancy 80.1 for men, 83.8 for women. The median home sold for £212,900, 5 times what households in the Argyll and Bute council area earn in a year. Its listed buildings number 204, with 13 at Category A.
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Helensburgh has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Helensburgh 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 Helensburgh is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Helensburgh has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 204 buildings inside Helensburgh’s locality, 13 of them in the top category.
The archive holds 5 old photos and postcards going back to 1890.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Helensburgh.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 31% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
71% of commuters drove, about level with Scotland’s towns (70%) and above Argyll and Bute’s towns (68%). In 2026, 2.2% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits. Of the commuters living in Helensburgh, 30% work in the town itself. The town counts 0.6 jobs per working resident.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Between them, four primaries and one secondary teach 2,196 pupils in Helensburgh. Below are two of its 6 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hermitage Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 372 | – |
| Hermitage AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,339 | B+ |
A quarter of residents are 65 or over, about level with Argyll and Bute’s towns (26%) and above Scotland’s towns (19%). Aged 15 to 24: one in ten residents. Half of Helensburgh is older than 48.4, half younger.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Helensburgh | Argyll and Bute | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.8% | 9.3% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 21% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 25% | 26% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 18% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.3% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 39% | 31% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Argyll and Bute and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
80% of Helensburgh’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, above both Argyll and Bute’s towns (77%) and Scotland’s towns (78%). A disability affects 23% of people locally.
| Census 2022 | Helensburgh | Argyll and Bute | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.8% | 7.5% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 23% | 27% | 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Helensburgh has 144 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. Its listed buildings include Dhuhill Drive West, Greycourt, Category A. The top grade, Category A, goes to 13 of them.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
14% of households live in social housing. Owners make up 71% of households, higher than both Argyll and Bute’s towns (62%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). Private rents average £869 a month across the Argyll and Bute council area.
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.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Helensburgh. Best known first.
CastleArdencaple Castlein town
Museum · National Trust for ScotlandGeilston Garden3.4 km outside town, to the southeastMuseumMuseumScottish Submarine Centrein townCastleCastleKilmahew Castle4.1 km outside town, to the southeastAttractionAttractionGeilston House3.5 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
204 listed buildings in Helensburgh, 13 of them in the top category.
8 Colquhoun Street Upper, The Hill House with Outbuildings, Boundary Walls and Gates: Photo: Unknown photographer · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Douglas Drive, Red Towers with Boundary Wall, Gatepiers, Gates and Wellhead: Photo: AlasdairW · CC BY-SA 4.0 · William Street, St Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church and Church Hall: Photo: AlasdairW · CC BY-SA 4.0 · James Street, Former la Scala Cinema: Photo: AlasdairW · CC BY-SA 4.0
36 notable people were born in Helensburgh.
George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll: George Frederic Watts, Public domain · Jack Buchanan: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Public domain · Peter Such: The original uploader was Kroome111 at English Wikipedia., Public domain · Herbert Guthrie-Smith: Herbert Guthrie-Smith; circa 1912; Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, Public domain
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helensburgh | 14,128 | — | — | B | — | C+ |
| Greenock | 42,870 | 4.6 | — | A | — | D− |
| Gourock | 10,072 | 5.4 | — | A | — | C |
| Alexandria | 6,260 | 5.5 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Port Glasgow | 14,260 | 5.8 | — | A | — | D− |
| Balloch and Haldane | 6,000 | 5.9 | — | B | — | D |
| Bonhill | 8,608 | 6.4 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Dumbarton | 21,027 | 7.4 | — | B+ | — | 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.
That is 5.9 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Dhuhill Drive West, Greycourt.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £212,900, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 279th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland
Helensburgh is a locality of 14,128 people, in the Argyll and Bute 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.