Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
2,635 people call this town in East Ayrshire, Scotland home.
Prices are modest for what you get: homes sell for a median £64,500, about 1.5 times local household income. Health is its weak spot: life expectancy 74.8 for men, 75.1 for women. Its schools fall short (D): school leavers’ results beat 8% of Scottish towns. Natural hazards weigh more here (D−): 14.8% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, New Cumnock has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far New Cumnock is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, New Cumnock has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things New Cumnock does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 5 buildings inside New Cumnock’s locality, 3 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →5 listed buildings in New Cumnock.
Nith Bridge: Photo: PaulT (Gunther Tschuch) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 15 and 17 Castle, Town Hall and Police Station: Photo: JThomas · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in New Cumnock.
Children under 15 make up 14%, below both East Ayrshire’s towns (16%) and Scotland’s towns (15%). Those 65 and older account for 25% of residents. The age that splits New Cumnock in two is 50.2. Nearly one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| New Cumnock | East Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.5% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 25% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 35% | 22% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.9% | 8.7% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 13% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Ayrshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
There is one school here; it is shown below. The town’s primary school has 219 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Cumnock Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 219 | – |
At the census, just over a third of people here had a disability, higher than both East Ayrshire’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Nearly two thirds of people in New Cumnock rate their own health good or very good. Men in New Cumnock can expect to live to 74.8, women to 75.1 (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | New Cumnock | East Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 66% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 13% | 8.1% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 35% | 27% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
The owner-occupied share of households is 51%. New Cumnock is the second cheapest of the 13 towns in East Ayrshire, at £64,500. Also worth knowing: 40% live in social housing, above both East Ayrshire’s towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). The private rented sector houses nearly one in ten 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.
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.
There are 0.3 jobs in New Cumnock for each resident in work. The car took 86% of commuters, higher than both East Ayrshire’s towns (82%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). 15% of commuters travelled under 5 km to work. Work in town: 6% of resident commuters.
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.
Per 10,000 residents, New Cumnock counts 19 listed buildings.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
14 notable people were born in New Cumnock.
Alex Gallacher: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 4.0 · Billy Dodds: Socheid, Public domain · Sam McKnight: Christopher William Adach from Mexico, CC BY-SA 2.0
Town in East Ayrshire, Scotland
New Cumnock is a locality of 2,635 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Cumnock | 2,635 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Cumnock | 8,835 | 5 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Auchinleck | 3,682 | 7 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Mauchline | 3,809 | 11 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Drongan | 3,063 | 11 | — | A+ | — | D |
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.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £64,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 15th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
GCSE results trail 92% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
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.
