Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 7,994 in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Oban 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 hazard risk (D): 5.9% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. The median home sold for £176,500 in the last three years, 4.2 times what households in the Argyll and Bute council area earn in a year.
The 3 things Oban 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 Oban is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Oban has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 77 buildings inside Oban’s locality, 1 of them in the top category, and 2 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 3 old photos and postcards going back to 1890.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Oban. Best known first.
CathedralSt John's Cathedralin town
MuseumOban War & Peace Museumin town
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandDunstaffnage Castle3.8 km outside town, to the north
CastleDunollie Castle500 m outside town, to the northwest
CastleGylen Castle4.4 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Oban.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 26% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Home was the main workplace for 26% of workers at the census; what’s more, 66% of commuters drove, below both Argyll and Bute’s towns (68%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). Unemployment benefit claims reached 3% of 16 to 64s in 2026. Of the commuters living in Oban, 75% work in the town itself.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Some 1,452 pupils attend Oban’s three primaries and one secondary. Below are two of its 4 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rockfield Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 220 | – |
| Oban High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 965 | B |
At the census, 23% of people here had a disability, below both Argyll and Bute’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Oban’s share in bad or very bad health, 6.6%, is the second lowest of the 5 towns in Argyll and Bute. Self-reported good health: four fifths of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Oban | Argyll and Bute | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.6% | 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 · 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.
Only one of the 5 towns in Argyll and Bute costs more to buy into than Oban, whose median sale is £176,500. 57% of households own their home, lower 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Category B covers 37 of them, Category A 1. Oban has 77 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 1 Category A, 37 Category B. 2 scheduled monuments lie locally.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Aged 15 to 24: 10% of residents. 20% of residents are 65 or over, below Argyll and Bute’s towns (26%) but above Scotland’s towns (19%). At 44, the median resident of Oban sits in the middle of the age range.
51% women, 49% men
About 96 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Oban | Argyll and Bute | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 9.3% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 21% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 20% | 26% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 27% | 31% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Argyll and Bute and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
77 listed buildings in Oban, 1 of them in the top category.
Battery Hill, Mccaig Monument: Photo: Mpeace37 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · George Street, Cathedral of St John the Divine (Episcopal) with Railings: Photo: Andrew Abbott · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Oban Sheriff Court and Justice Of The Peace Court, Albany Street, Oban: Photo: Blood Red Sandman · CC BY 4.0 · Corran Esplanade, Great Western Hotel: Photo: Robertgarrigos · CC BY-SA 3.0
23 notable people were born in Oban.
Susie Wolff: Denisruben DE, CC BY-SA 4.0 · John McPhee: Box Repsol, CC BY 2.0 · Jamie Campbell-Walter: Drew Gibson, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Robert MacIntyre: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Allan McLean: not identified, Public domain · Jessie MacLachlan: Johnston & Hoffman., Public domain
That is 4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A building is Corran Esplanade, Cathedral Church of St Columba, With Boundary Walls (Roman Catholic). It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
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 £176,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 256th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland
Oban is a locality of 7,994 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.