Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
43% of households own their home with no mortgage. 5,237 people live in this town in East Lothian, Scotland.
Cockenzie’s strongest subject is walkability: 22% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Pupils here do less well than most: school leavers’ results beat 11% of Scottish towns. At a median £236,100, a home costs 4.4 times the yearly income of households in the East Lothian council area. Health lags (C): life expectancy is 80 for men and 83.7 for women.
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Cockenzie has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Cockenzie 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 Cockenzie is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Cockenzie has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 13 buildings inside Cockenzie’s locality, 2 of them in the top category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Cockenzie.
There is one school here; it is shown below. 310 pupils attend Cockenzie’s one primary school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cockenzie Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 310 | – |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 32% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
20% of commuters travelled under 5 km, below East Lothian’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (44%) alike. In 2026, 1.9% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits. Of the commuters living in Cockenzie, 7% work in the town itself. Jobs per working resident: 0.3.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Households that own their home make up 75%. Social housing holds 17% of households, lower than both East Lothian’s towns (23%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Private rents average £1,507 a month across the Lothian 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.
Cockenzie’s share in bad or very bad health, 6.9%, is the second highest of the 11 towns in East Lothian. 25% of residents have a disability, higher than East Lothian’s towns (23%) and near Scotland’s towns (24%). Men in Cockenzie can expect to live to 80, women to 83.7 (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | Cockenzie | East Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.9% | 5.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 25% | 23% | 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
At the top of the list, 2 are Category A and 1 Category B. Per 10,000 residents, Cockenzie counts 25 listed buildings, below East Lothian’s towns (85) but above Scotland’s towns (22). One garden or designed landscape lies here.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
The age that splits Cockenzie in two is 50.4. People 65 and over make up 23% of the town, higher than both East Lothian’s towns (21%) and Scotland’s towns (19%). Those aged 15 to 24 account for one in ten residents.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Cockenzie | East Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 12% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 33% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 15% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 11% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 13% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 24% | 33% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Cockenzie. Best known first.
CastleFa'side Castle4.8 km outside town, to the southwest
CastlePreston Tower1.5 km outside town, to the southwest
Historic houseGosford House3.9 km outside town, to the northeast
MuseumPrestongrange Mining Museum3.1 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleRedhouse Castle4 km outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
13 listed buildings in Cockenzie, 2 of them in the top category.
Cockenzie House: Photo: M J Richardson · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Edinburgh Road, Methodist Chapel with Boundary Walls: Photo: Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 44 High Street, Old Parish Church, Church of Scotland: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 126-128 (Even Nos) High Street, Port Seton House with Boundary Wall and Gatepiers: Photo: Anne Burgess · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
5 notable people were born in Cockenzie.
Francis Cadell: Fawcett5, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cockenzie | 5,237 | — | — | B+ | — | C |
| Prestonpans | 10,623 | 1.4 | — | A− | — | D |
| Tranent | 12,235 | 1.9 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Longniddry | 2,598 | 2.1 | — | C− | — | B |
| Wallyford | 4,493 | 3.2 | — | B− | — | D |
| Ormiston | 2,587 | 4 | — | B | — | C− |
| Musselburgh | 21,476 | 4.3 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Haddington | 11,364 | 6.5 | — | B | — | 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.
One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
Band D council tax in Cockenzie is £1,698 for 2026–27, less than in 89% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £236,100, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 257th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in East Lothian, Scotland
Cockenzie is a locality of 5,237 people, in the East Lothian 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.