Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Dundee has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is walkability (A): 29% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its weakest is health (D−): life expectancy 74.6 for men, 79.1 for women. The median home sold for £142,300 in the last three years, 3.5 times what households in the Dundee City council area earn in a year.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Dundee is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Dundee has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Dundee.
Health
Dundee’s life expectancy trails 97% of UK towns
Just over a quarter of residents have a disability, close to Dundee City council area’s towns (26%) and above Scotland’s towns (24%). At the census, 78% of people in Dundee called their health good or very good, near both Dundee City council area’s towns (78%) and Scotland’s towns (78%).
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
SchoolsB−
Exam results at Dundee’s schools trail 54% of Scottish towns
Below are three of its 42 schools, each with why it was picked. Grove Academy’s results beat just over four in five schools in Scotland like it. Some 18,115 pupils attend Dundee’s 33 primaries and seven secondaries.
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 42 schools →
Work & commute
Dundee is more walkable than 95% of UK towns
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.
Short trips to work, under 5 km: 60%, about level with Dundee City council area’s towns (60%) and above Scotland’s towns (44%). 4% of people aged 16 to 64 were on unemployment benefits in 2026. Work in town: 80% of resident commuters. For every resident in work, Dundee has 1.3 jobs.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
HousingCost of living grade B+
For cost of living grade, Dundee gets a B+
No town in the Dundee City council area costs more to buy into than Dundee, at £142,300, the highest of 1. Just over a fifth of households rent privately. Owners make up 51% of households, near Dundee City council area’s towns (51%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (60%).
£142Kmedian sale
Median sale price · 2023 to 2025, at early-2025 prices
Dundee£142K
Typical UK town£277K
51%
of households own their home · Scotland 60%
21%
rent privately · Scotland 13%
£838
average private rent a month, Dundee and Angus 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.
History
A town of 853 listed buildings, 69 of them in the top category
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Dundee has 58 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, higher than Scotland’s towns (22). At the top of the list, 69 are Category A and 543 Category B. The register of parks and gardens lists 3 locally.
853listed buildings
Listed buildings by grade · Historic Environment Scotland
Brian Cox: Amy Martin Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Katie Leung: German Comic Con, CC BY 3.0 · William Kidd: James Thornhill, Public domain · Charlie Adam: Chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · George Galloway: UK Parliament, CC BY 3.0
Dundee’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 Dundee
How many listed buildings are there in Dundee?
That is 2.4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Albert Square, Mcmanus Galleries, Formerly Albert Institute, Including Lampstandards. It also has 6 scheduled monuments.
Is Dundee expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £142,300, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 248th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Does Dundee flood?
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
About Dundee
City in Dundee City, Scotland
Dundee is a locality of 147,365 people, in the Dundee City 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
147,365 (Census 2022)
Council
Dundee City (mostly)
Nation
Scotland
Area
18.5 sq mi (47.8 km²)
NRS code
S52000210
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.
