Photo: M J Richardson · CC BY-SA 2.0How Dundee City stacks up
Only two areas have poorer households than Dundee City: households take in £40,200 a year on average. It struggles most with slow growth (+1.4% since 2011). It has no overall grade yet: Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime we can reuse, so there is no Safety grade to weigh.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
Not gradedNot graded yet: no street-level crime for Scotland. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime that we can reuse, so Scottish council areas, like Scottish towns, have no Safety grade yet, and without one no overall grade. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, due at the end of 2026, should bring newer crime figures by small area; we plan to grade Scottish safety on them.
Schools
77th of 90C−15/100 Weaker results than most. Dundee City’s school leavers rank 7th lowest of 32 Scottish council areas: 62% have five or more awards at National 5 level. Angus and Perth and Kinross both do better on schools.
Source: Scottish Government school leaver attainment, 2022/23 to 2024/25: leavers with five or more awards at SCQF level 5 (National 5) or better, every state secondary in the council area. Ranked among Scotland’s council areas.
Dundee City has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Cost of living
2nd of 98A+99/100 Among the most affordable areas. Registers of Scotland sales put the typical home at £146,000, or 3.6 years of average household income, against 4.4 across Scotland. It leads its neighbours on affordability, ahead of Angus.
Typical sale price: £146,000 (2,756 sales, 4th lowest).
Private rent £825 a month (30th lowest); Band D council tax £1,730 (26th lowest), before water and sewerage charges. Shown for context.
Source: Registers of Scotland sales September 2025 to August 2026 (median estimated from monthly figures); household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; private rents for the wider Scottish broad rental area; council Band D 2026/27.
Dundee City has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Health
83rd of 98C−15/100 Health trails most areas. Dundee City ranks 7th shortest for healthy life expectancy, at 55.8 years. Angus and Perth and Kinross both do better on health.
Life expectancy at birth: 77.4 years, 6th shortest.
Source: National Records of Scotland healthy life expectancy and life expectancy by council area, 2022 to 2024, men and women averaged. A survey-based figure, so ranked among Scotland’s council areas only.
Dundee City has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Jobs & income
96th of 98D−2/100 Jobs and pay are the weak spot. Both its neighbours, Angus and Perth and Kinross, score higher. Households take in £40,200 a year on average before tax, against £45,600 across Scotland (3rd lowest of 98 areas).
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 4.2% of working-age adults (9th highest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head, 2022, and household size (Scotland has no small-area income figures); DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Dundee City has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
8th of 98A93/100 Among the easiest places to get about without a car. At the 2022 Census, 29% of people travelling to work went on foot, by bike or by public transport, 4 points above the figure for Scotland. It leads its neighbours on walkability, ahead of Perth and Kinross.
Worked mainly from home at the 2022 Census: 28% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: Scotland’s Census 2022, method of travel to work by council area; people working mainly from home left out.
Dundee City has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Flood risk
38th of 87B57/100 A bit less exposed than most. Among its neighbours it does best on flood risk, with Perth and Kinross second. SEPA puts 1,246 homes in its towns at high or medium flood risk, 1.8% of them.
Source: SEPA flood maps (rivers and the sea, high and medium likelihood), homes in every town of the council area. SEPA’s bands differ from England’s, so ranked among Scotland’s council areas.
Dundee City has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Growth
82nd of 98C−16/100 Population barely moving. The population grew 1.4% between 2011 and 2024, to 149,330, against 4.6% across Scotland (14th slowest).
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +1.7% (37th slowest).
Source: National Records of Scotland mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Dundee City has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Dundee City compares to its neighbours
Dundee City beats every neighbour on cost of living, getting about and flood risk; on schools, health and jobs and income, every neighbour beats it.
| Dundee City | Angus | Perth and Kinross | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | No overall grade | No overall grade | No overall grade |
| Safety | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Schools | C− 1526th official | C 3127th official · 11% in top towns | B+ 7011th official · 18% in top towns |
| Cost of living | A+ 998th official | A− 7733rd official · 100% in top towns | B+ 6944th official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | C− 1526th official | B 5910th official · 11% in top towns | A− 764th official · 17% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | D− 296th official | C− 1882nd official | B+ 6852nd official |
| Getting about | A 937th official | C 2863rd official · 0% in top towns | B+ 7130th official · 3% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B 5715th official | C− 2219th official · 7% in top towns | B 5610th official · 18% in top towns |
| Growth | C− 1685th official | D 890th official | B− 4660th official |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.