Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,717 in council tax. The town, home to 8,835 people, lies in East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Cumnock’s strongest subject is cost of living — the median home sold for £102,100, 2.4 years of area income. Health lags: life expectancy is 74.8 for men and 78.7 for women. Schools lag: school leavers’ results beat 8% of Scottish towns. Homes change hands at a median £102,100.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Cumnock has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Cumnock is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Cumnock has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Cumnock does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 42 buildings inside Cumnock’s locality, 2 of them in the top category.
The archive holds 2 old photos and postcards going back to 1890.
42 listed buildings in Cumnock, 2 of them in the top category.
Bank (Or Templand) Railway Viaduct over Lugar Water in Woodroad Park: Photo: david johnston · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mercat Cross, The Square: Photo: Kim Traynor · CC BY-SA 3.0 · The Sun Inn, The Square: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Congregational Church and Manse Auchinleck Road: Photo: JThomas · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Cumnock.
The private rented sector houses one in ten households. Private rents average £656 a month across the Ayrshires council area. Social renters account for 27% of households.
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.
Between them, two primaries and one secondary teach 2,262 pupils in Cumnock. Below are two of its 5 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lochnorris Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 447 | – |
| Robert Burns AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,601 | D |
Nearly one in ten residents report bad or very bad health. At the census, 29% of people here had a disability, higher than both East Ayrshire’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Self-reported good health: 74% of Cumnock’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Cumnock | East Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.9% | 8.1% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 29% | 27% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · These shares come straight from the census, without allowing for age, and young towns benefit; the Health Grade instead weighs 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; 24% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
3.7% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026, near East Ayrshire’s towns (3.8%) and higher than Scotland’s towns (2.8%). At the census, 83% of commuters went by car. Work in town: 29% of resident commuters. The census counted 24% of workers working mainly from home.
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.
Relative to its size, Cumnock keeps 48 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. One garden or designed landscape lies locally.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
9.3% of the population is aged 15 to 24, lower than both East Ayrshire’s towns (10%) and Scotland’s towns (12%). The under-15s are 17% of the population here. Ages in Cumnock split evenly at 45.2: half are older, half younger. The 65-and-over age group makes up just over a fifth of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Cumnock | East Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.3% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 22% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 24% | 22% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9.5% | 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
12 notable people were born in Cumnock.
Eric Caldow: Herbert Behrens / Anefo, CC0 · Agnes Hardie: unknown copyright claim by East Ayrshire Council despite 70 years passed, Public domain
Town in East Ayrshire, Scotland
Cumnock is a locality of 8,835 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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumnock | 8,835 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Auchinleck | 3,682 | 2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| New Cumnock | 2,635 | 5 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Mauchline | 3,809 | 6.5 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Drongan | 3,063 | 8.1 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Newmilns | 2,559 | 11 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Darvel | 3,701 | 11 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Galston | 4,527 | 11 | — | 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 22nd most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
GCSE results trail 92% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Band D council tax in Cumnock 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.
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.