Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a town of 10,746 residents in East Lothian, Scotland. Council tax at Band D comes to £1,698.
Walkability is its strong suit (A): 28% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Add schools to its strengths: school leavers’ results beat just over three quarters of Scottish towns. The median home sold for £275,800, 5.1 times what households in the East Lothian council area earn in a year. Health is a weak point: life expectancy 78 for men, 83.4 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 Dunbar has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Dunbar 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 Dunbar is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Dunbar has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 142 buildings inside Dunbar’s locality, 7 of them in the top category, and 3 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Dunbar.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 34% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
About 27% of its commuters stay in Dunbar for work. 34% of commuters travelled under 5 km to work. The next most common way to work was walking (13%).
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Some 2,003 pupils attend Dunbar’s one primary and one secondary. Both of the town’s schools appear below. Its two schools are below.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dunbar Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 916 | – |
| Dunbar Grammar SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,087 | B+ |
21% of residents have a disability, below East Lothian’s towns (23%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike. Self-reported good health: 83% of Dunbar’s residents. Men in Dunbar can expect to live to 78, women to 83.4 (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | Dunbar | East Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.7% | 5.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 21% | 23% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
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, 7 are Category A and 102 Category B. Per 10,000 residents, Dunbar counts 132 listed buildings. Conservation areas cover 20% of the town’s land, higher than both East Lothian’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (1%).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Private renters make up 8% of households, near East Lothian’s towns (8%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (13%). The median, £275,800, rests on 543 sales in Dunbar’s data zones from 2023 to 2025. The social rented sector houses a fifth 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.
A tenth of the population is aged 15 to 24, close to East Lothian’s towns (10%) and below Scotland’s towns (12%). Half of Dunbar is older than 43.4, half younger. Among adults, 38% have a degree.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Dunbar | East Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 20% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.2% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 38% | 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 Dunbar. Best known first.
MuseumJohn Muir Birthplacein town
CastleDunbar Castle100 m outside town, to the northMuseumMuseumDunbar Town House Museum and Galleryin townCastleCastleThe Magazinein townWater parkWater parkFoxlake Dunbar2.7 km outside town, to the westCastleCastleThe Gunholes100 m outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
142 listed buildings in Dunbar, 7 of them in the top category.
High Street, Town House (Tolbooth): Photo: Kim Traynor · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Queen's Road Parish Church and Graveyard, Church of Scotland: Photo: Mr H · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Station Road, Lodge (Former Station Lodge): Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Victoria Street, Volunteer Arms: Photo: Richard West · CC BY-SA 2.0
14 notable people were born in Dunbar.
John Muir: Underwood & Underwood, Public domain · Mellis Napier: Pdfpdf, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sandy Smith: Sandy Smith, CC BY 3.0 · Anthony Dickson Home: Elliot & Fry (no individual credited), Public domain · Jack Hobens: Unknown (Life time: unknown#), Public domain · James Logan: Mutt Lunker, CC BY-SA 4.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunbar | 10,746 | — | — | B | — | C |
| North Berwick | 8,314 | 8.9 | — | C | — | B+ |
| Haddington | 11,364 | 11 | — | 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.
That is 5.4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Belhaven, Belhaven Brewery (Maltings, Kilns, Vaults, Brewhouse, Boilerhouse, Chimney, Office, Former Stable and Mill).. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
GCSE results beat 76% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Dunbar has 2 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Band D council tax in Dunbar 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.
Town in East Lothian, Scotland
Dunbar is a locality of 10,746 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.