Dumfries’s strongest subject is cost of living: the median home sold for £150,400, 3.6 years of area income. Getting around on foot or by bus is easy: nearly a quarter of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Residents’ health trails most towns: men here can expect to live to 76.4, women to 81.3. Hazard risk is weaker too (C): 2.1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Dumfries has no Safety Grade and, without it, no 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 Dumfries is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Dumfries has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Dumfries.
HousingCost of living grade A+
Dumfries earns an A+ for cost of living grade
Behind the median of £150,400: 1,724 sales in Dumfries’s data zones, 2023 to 2025. Private rents average £641 a month across the Dumfries and Galloway council area. Also worth knowing: the private rented sector houses 13% of households.
£150Kmedian sale
Median sale price · 2023 to 2025, at early-2025 prices
Dumfries£150K
Typical UK town£277K
13%
rent privately · Scotland 13%
£641
average private rent a month, Dumfries and Galloway 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.
SchoolsB+
On exam results, Dumfries’s schools beat 68% of Scottish towns
Between them, 12 primaries and four secondaries teach 4,611 pupils in Dumfries. Of its 18 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason.
Scottish Government · school statistics and leavers’ results · The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.See all 18 schools →
Health
People in Dumfries live shorter lives than in 88% of UK towns
Dumfries’ share in bad or very bad health, 7.1%, is the second lowest of the 10 towns in Dumfries and Galloway. Just over a quarter of residents have a disability, between Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Asked at the census, 77% of residents of Dumfries said they were in good or very good health.
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.
Work & commute
More commuters in Dumfries work nearby than in Dumfries and Galloway’s towns or Scotland’s towns: 71% travel under 5 km
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 25% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Of the commuters living in Dumfries, 52% work in the town itself. The car carried three quarters of commuters at the census. At the census, 23% went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport, close to Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (22%) and below Scotland’s towns (27%). The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 3.2%.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
History
22 Category A buildings among Dumfries’s 314 listed
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Dumfries’s listed buildings include the Church Street, Dumfries Museum Observatory, Category A. Relative to its size, Dumfries keeps 93 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than both Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (75) and Scotland’s towns (22). The national list protects 2 ancient monuments locally.
314listed buildings
Listed buildings by grade · Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Who lives here
A typical mix of ages for Scotland
The 65-and-over age group makes up just over a fifth of residents. One in ten residents are 15 to 24, near Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (9.9%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (12%). The median resident of Dumfries is 44.9 years old. Graduates make up 27% of adults.
44.9median age
DumfriesDumfries and GallowayScotland
Ages · share of residents
22%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications20%
Apprenticeship8%
Highers or similar11%
Degree level27%
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
WomenScotlandMen
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
Calvin Harris: Sony BMG, CC BY 3.0 · Grant Hanley: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · John Richardson: Stephen Pearce, Public domain · Allan McNish: AndrewHenkelman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alister Jack: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0 · Callan Elliot: JaumeBG, CC BY-SA 4.0
Dumfries’s neighbours
The nearest towns and villages, from National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities. See them on the map →
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.
Questions about Dumfries
How many listed buildings are there in Dumfries?
That is 3.8 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Church Street, Dumfries Museum Observatory. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Is Dumfries expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £150,400, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 26th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
How much is council tax in Dumfries?
Band D council tax in Dumfries is £1,579 for 2026–27, less than in 96% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Does Dumfries flood?
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
About Dumfries
Large town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Dumfries is a locality of 33,694 people, in the Dumfries and Galloway 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
Population
33,694 (Census 2022)
Council
Dumfries and Galloway
Nation
Scotland
Area
5.4 sq mi (14 km²)
NRS code
S52000206
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.
