Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 2,559 people live in this town, in East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Newmilns’s strongest subject is cost of living — the median home sold for £55,600, 1.3 years of area income. Walking, cycling and public transport work well here: 17% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Health lags: life expectancy is 72.5 for men and 77.2 for women. It lags on schools as well — school leavers’ results beat 26% of Scottish towns. Hazard risk is higher than most (D−): just over one in ten homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Newmilns has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Newmilns is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Newmilns has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Newmilns does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 23 buildings inside Newmilns’s locality, 1 of them in the top category.
Explore the history →23 listed buildings in Newmilns, 1 of them in the top category.
Railway Viaduct: Photo: Dreamer84 · CC BY 3.0 · Loudoun Old Parish Church, Main Street, And Graveyard.: Photo: WeeHolly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lamlash House, including boundary wall, gatepiers and railings, 1 Brown Street, Newmilns: Photo: Lamlash House · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lady Flora's School, Main Street: Photo: RA Young · Public domain
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newmilns.
Asked at the census, 70% of residents of Newmilns said they were in good or very good health. 33% of residents have a disability, above both East Ayrshire’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). At the census, a tenth of people here described their health as bad or very bad.
| Census 2022 | Newmilns | East Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 70% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 10% | 8.1% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 33% | 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.
Its only school is listed below. 114 pupils attend Newmilns’s one primary school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newmilns Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 114 | – |
No town in East Ayrshire costs less to buy into than Newmilns, at £55,600, the lowest of 13. Private rents average £656 a month across the Ayrshires council area. Social housing holds 28% of households, above East Ayrshire’s towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike.
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; 28% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
84% of commuters drove, above East Ayrshire’s towns (82%) and Scotland’s towns (70%) alike. Newmilns counts 0.5 jobs per working resident. About 7% of its commuters stay in Newmilns for work. For 19% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
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.
Scaled to its population, Newmilns has 90 listed buildings per 10,000 people, above East Ayrshire’s towns (28) and Scotland’s towns (22) alike. The town counts 23 listed buildings on the national list (Historic Environment Scotland): 1 Category A, 16 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Over-65s are a quarter of the population. Young adults of 15 to 24 are one in ten residents, near East Ayrshire’s towns (10%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (12%). Residents of Newmilns have a median age of 50.7.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Newmilns | East Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 12% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.9% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 33% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 25% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 24% | 22% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.2% | 8.7% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9.8% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 25% | 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 Newmilns. Best known first.
CastleNewmilns Towerin town
CastleLoudoun Castle1.5 km outside town, to the west
CastleBarr Castle1.9 km outside town, to the westFortFortCarnals Castle3.1 km outside town, to the northeastFortFortCastle Hill100 m outside town, to the northeastMuseumMuseumDarvel Telephone Museum700 m outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
8 notable people were born in Newmilns.
Town in East Ayrshire, Scotland
Newmilns is a locality of 2,559 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newmilns | 2,559 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Darvel | 3,701 | 1.9 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Galston | 4,527 | 2.1 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Hurlford and Crookedholm | 4,360 | 4.9 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Kilmarnock | 47,073 | 6.4 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Mauchline | 3,809 | 6.6 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Kilmaurs | 2,702 | 8.1 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Crosshouse | 2,609 | 8.6 | — | 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 £55,600, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 13th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
That is 3.7 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size.
GCSE results trail 74% 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.
