Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 14,689 in Clackmannanshire, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Alloa has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A−): the 212th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns: median sale £145,800, 3.3 years of area income; rent £930 a month. Its weakest is health (D): life expectancy 75 for men, 80.4 for women.
The 3 things Alloa 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 Alloa is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Alloa has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 81 buildings inside Alloa’s locality, 6 of them in the top category, and 3 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1895.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Alloa.
Women here live to 80.4 on average and men to 75 (2020–24). 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.
| Census 2022 | Alloa | Clackmannanshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.7% | 7.7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 26% | 26% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL
Two of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redwell primary schoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 390 | – |
| Alloa AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 756 | D |
11% rent privately, above Clackmannanshire’s towns (9%) but below Scotland’s towns (13%).
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL
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.
78% of commuters drove, below Clackmannanshire’s towns (82%) but above Scotland’s towns (70%). 3.4% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026.
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.
Alloa has 81 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 6 Category A, 41 Category B. Alloa has 55 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, above both Clackmannanshire’s towns (19) and Scotland’s towns (22). Alloa’s listed buildings include Alloa Tower, Category A.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
11% of residents are 15 to 24 and 18% are 65 or over, against 10% and 21% across Clackmannanshire’s towns. 24% of residents 16 and over have a degree-level qualification (Clackmannanshire 26%, Scotland 32%).
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Alloa | Clackmannanshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 18% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 19% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.4% | 8.9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 24% | 26% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Clackmannanshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Alloa. Best known first.
Castle · National Trust for ScotlandAlloa Towerin town
CastleClackmannan Tower500 m outside town, to the southeast
Castle · National Trust for ScotlandMenstrie Castle3.2 km outside town, to the northwest
CastleSauchie Tower1.9 km outside town, to the northeast
Historic houseBroomhall Castle3.2 km outside town, to the northwest
CastlePlean Castle4.8 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
81 listed buildings in Alloa, 6 of them in the top category.
Alloa Tower: Photo: AllyD · Public domain · The Gean House, (Including Terraces, Forecourt, Walled Garden and Summerhouse), Tullibody Road and Claremont: Photo: Spikey · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Spiers Centre (Former Public Baths and Gymnasium), Primrose Street and Primrose Place, Alloa: Photo: AllyD · CC BY-SA 4.0 · East Vennel and Old Bridge Street, Thistle Brewery: Photo: AllyD · Public domain
31 notable people were born in Alloa.
David Allan: David Allan, Public domain · David Wilson: Deryck Chan, CC BY-SA 3.0 · James Jameson: Hermann Werdmüller, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alloa | 14,689 | — | — | A− | — | D |
| Sauchie | 6,357 | 1.1 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Tullibody | 8,515 | 1.8 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Clackmannan | 3,282 | 2 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Alva | 4,820 | 2.4 | — | A− | — | D |
| Fallin | 2,769 | 3 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Menstrie | 2,834 | 3.1 | — | B | — | C |
| Tillicoultry | 4,482 | 3.4 | — | 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.
That is 2.3 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Alloa Tower. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £145,800, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 212th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Alloa is £1,684 for 2026–27, less than in 92% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Town in Clackmannanshire, Scotland
Alloa is a locality of 14,689 people, in the Clackmannanshire 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.