Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Council tax at Band D comes to £1,717. A town in East Ayrshire, Scotland, home to 2,609 people.
Crosshouse’s strongest is cost of living: the median home sold for £124,900, 2.9 years of area income. Health lags (D−): life expectancy 73 for men, 78.9 for women. Pupils here do less well than most (C): school leavers’ results beat just over a third of Scottish towns. Homes sell for a median £124,900.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS. Crosshouse has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Crosshouse 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 Crosshouse is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Crosshouse has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 2 buildings inside Crosshouse’s locality, 1 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Crosshouse.
The social rented sector houses 18% of households. Owners make up 69% of households, above both East Ayrshire’s towns (63%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). Private rents average £656 a month across the Ayrshires 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.
Of its 2 schools, one is shown below, with the reason. 155 pupils attend Crosshouse’s one primary school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crosshouse Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 155 | – |
74% of people in Crosshouse rate their own health good or very good. At the census, 28% of people here had a disability, higher than both East Ayrshire’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 7.8% of the town.
| Census 2022 | Crosshouse | East Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.8% | 8.1% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 28% | 27% | 24% |
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.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 22% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
The census found 18% of commuters going to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Working mainly from home: just over a fifth of workers, lower than both East Ayrshire’s towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (31%). In 2026, 2.6% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits. About 14% of its commuters stay in Crosshouse for work.
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.
Crosshouse has 2 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 1 Category B. It has 8 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, below East Ayrshire’s towns (34) and Scotland’s towns (22) alike.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
15% are under 15, below both East Ayrshire’s towns (16%) and Scotland’s towns (15%). Young adults of 15 to 24 account for 9.4% of the town. Half of Crosshouse is older than 49.3, half younger. Graduates make up 19% of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Crosshouse | East Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.4% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 31% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 24% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 22% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 13% | 8.7% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 19% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Ayrshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Crosshouse. Best known first.
CastleDean Castle3.3 km outside town, to the east
CastleDundonald Castle4.3 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleCaprington Castle1.8 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumDick Institute2.8 km outside town, to the east
CastleRowallan Castle4.3 km outside town, to the northeast
CastleAuchans4.9 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
3 notable people were born in Crosshouse.
Andrew Fisher: National Library of Australia, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crosshouse | 2,609 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Kilmaurs | 2,702 | 1.9 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Kilmarnock | 47,073 | 2.2 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Dreghorn | 3,362 | 2.8 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Dundonald | 2,579 | 3.1 | — | A | — | C− |
| Hurlford and Crookedholm | 4,360 | 3.9 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Irvine | 34,005 | 3.9 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Stewarton | 7,870 | 4.9 | — | A+ | — | C |
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.
On cost of living it is the 26th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Crosshouse has 2 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Band D council tax in Crosshouse is £1,717 for 2026–27, less than in 88% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Town in East Ayrshire, Scotland
Crosshouse is a locality of 2,609 people, in the East Ayrshire 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.