Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Band D council tax is £1,717. Home to 7,870 people, this town lies in East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Homes are affordable (A+): homes sell for a median £171,000, about 4 times local household income. Health is its weak spot: men here can expect to live to 77.1, women to 83.6. It lags on hazard risk as well: 2.1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. Its other grades sit near the middle: B for schools and B for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA · commuting, Census 2022. Stewarton has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, 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 Stewarton is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Stewarton has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Stewarton does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 28 buildings inside Stewarton’s locality, 7 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →28 listed buildings in Stewarton.
Corsehill Castle: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · St Columba's Parish Church and Kirkyard, Including Boundary Walls, (Church of Scotland): Photo: WeeHolly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Avenue Square, Institute Hall: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 1 Loudoun Street: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Stewarton.
13% live in social housing, below both East Ayrshire’s towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Stewarton is the most expensive of the 13 towns in East Ayrshire: its median sale is £171,000. Private renters make up just over 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.
Below are two of its 3 schools, each with why it was picked. Stewarton’s two primaries and one secondary have 1,549 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lainshaw Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 355 | – |
| Stewarton AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 899 | B |
A fifth of residents have a disability, below both East Ayrshire’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Stewarton’s share in bad or very bad health, 5.2%, is the lowest of the 13 towns in East Ayrshire.
| Census 2022 | Stewarton | East Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.2% | 8.1% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 20% | 27% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 31% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
16% of commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, about level with East Ayrshire’s towns (16%) and below Scotland’s towns (27%). The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 2.2%. Work in town: just over a tenth of resident commuters. For every resident in work, Stewarton has 0.4 jobs.
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.
Stewarton has 28 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 7 Category B. Of the town’s land, 3% lies in conservation areas, about level with East Ayrshire’s towns (3%) and above Scotland’s towns (1%). Relative to its size, Stewarton keeps 36 listed buildings per 10,000 residents.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Typical age in Stewarton: 43, the median. The 15-to-24 age group makes up 9.5% of residents. Degrees are held by just over a third of adults, above both East Ayrshire’s towns (23%) and Scotland’s towns (32%).
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Stewarton | East Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.5% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 20% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 22% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.9% | 8.7% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 35% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Ayrshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Town in East Ayrshire, Scotland
Stewarton is a locality of 7,870 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stewarton | 7,870 | — | — | A+ | — | C |
| Kilmaurs | 2,702 | 3 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Kilmarnock | 47,073 | 4.8 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Crosshouse | 2,609 | 4.9 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Hurlford and Crookedholm | 4,360 | 6.2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Dreghorn | 3,362 | 6.5 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Irvine | 34,005 | 6.6 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Beith | 5,773 | 6.6 | — | 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 £171,000, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 46th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Stewarton 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.