Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Council tax at Band D comes to £1,579. In Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, this town has 3,937 residents.
Newton Stewart’s strongest subject is cost of living: homes sell for a median £136,600, about 3.2 times local household income. It is easy to get around without a car: 24% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Health lags: men here can expect to live to 77.4, women to 78.5. Hazard risk is weaker too (D): one in ten homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Pupils here do less well than most: school leavers’ results beat 14% of Scottish towns.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Newton Stewart has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Newton Stewart 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 Newton Stewart is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Newton Stewart has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 87 buildings inside Newton Stewart’s locality, 3 of them in the top category, and 2 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newton Stewart.
Behind the median of £136,600: 170 sales in Newton Stewart’s data zones, 2023 to 2025. Private rents average £641 a month across the Dumfries and Galloway council area. Also worth knowing: 13% rent privately, above Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (12%) and close to Scotland’s towns (13%).
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.
Some 878 pupils attend Newton Stewart’s two primaries and one secondary. Of its 4 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penninghame SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 250 | – |
| Douglas Ewart High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 600 | C− |
Of the 10 towns in Dumfries and Galloway, Newton Stewart has the second-largest share in bad or very bad health: 8.9%. 30% of residents have a disability, above Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike. Asked at the census, nearly three quarters of residents of Newton Stewart said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2022 | Newton Stewart | Dumfries and Galloway | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.9% | 7.7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 30% | 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.
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.
Three in five commuters travelled under 5 km, close to Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (60%) and above Scotland’s towns (44%). Driving is how three quarters of commuters got to work at the census. For every resident in work, Newton Stewart has 1 jobs.
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.
Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 87 listed buildings in Newton Stewart: 3 Category A, 28 Category B. Conservation areas cover 12% of the town’s land, above both Dumfries and Galloway’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%). 2 scheduled monuments lie here.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 make up nearly a tenth of the town. The median resident of Newton Stewart is 49.1 years old. Among adults, 22% have a degree.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Newton Stewart | Dumfries and Galloway | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.3% | 9.9% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 22% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 27% | 25% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 24% | 23% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.7% | 8.9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 22% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Dumfries and Galloway and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
87 listed buildings in Newton Stewart, 3 of them in the top category.
Cree Bridge: Photo: Dennis Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dashwood Square, The Mcmillan Hall, Railings and Gates: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Minnigaff, 2 Creebridge, Ye Olde Toll Bar: Photo: Milestone Society · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Queen Street, Black Horse Hotel with Coach House: Photo: Leslie Barrie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
6 notable people were born in Newton Stewart.
James Mirrlees: 總統府, CC BY 2.0 · Sydney Rigby Wason: Lieutenant Smith, Public domain
That is 9.1 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Church Street, Penninghame Parish Church, St John's (Church_of Scotland), Boundary Walls and Railings. 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 £136,600, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 13th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Newton Stewart 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.
Town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Newton Stewart is a locality of 3,937 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
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.