Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Band D council tax is £1,698. The large town, home to 21,476 people, lies in East Lothian, Scotland.
Musselburgh’s strongest subject is walkability — on the way to work, 37% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Buying a home costs less than in most towns (B+): the median home sold for £217,500, 4 years of area income. Natural hazards weigh more here: 15.4% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. It also trails on health (C−): men here can expect to live to 77, women to 81.8.
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, SEPA · life expectancy, ONS. Musselburgh has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Musselburgh 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 Musselburgh is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Musselburgh has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 188 buildings inside Musselburgh’s locality, 11 of them in the top category, and 7 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Musselburgh. Best known first.
Historic houseNewhailes House, Musselburghin town
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandCraigmillar Castle3.3 km outside town, to the west
Garden · National Trust for ScotlandInveresk Lodge Garden100 m outside town, to the southeast
CastleDalkeith Palace3 km outside town, to the south
Abbey or prioryNewbattle Abbey4.8 km outside town, to the south
CastleFa'side Castle1.9 km outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Musselburgh.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 33% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Jobs per working resident: 0.8. 28% of commuters travelled under 5 km, close to East Lothian’s towns (27%) and below Scotland’s towns (44%). Of the commuters living in Musselburgh, 16% work in the town itself. Among 16 to 64s, 2.8% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Two of its 6 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Musselburgh’s five primaries and one secondary have 2,135 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinkie St Peter's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 441 | – |
| Musselburgh Grammar SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 802 | D |
At the census, 6% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, near East Lothian’s towns (5.9%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (7.2%). 23% of residents in Musselburgh live with a disability. Self-reported good health: four fifths of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Musselburgh | East Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6% | 5.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 23% | 23% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Private renters make up 11% of households, between East Lothian’s towns (8%) and Scotland’s towns (13%). Owners make up 63% 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Musselburgh’s listed buildings include High Street Tolbooth, Category A. For its size, Musselburgh has 88 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. Of the town’s land, 21% lies in conservation areas, above East Lothian’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (1%) alike.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 make up 13% of the town. Line up the people of Musselburgh by age and the one in the middle is 41.6. The 65-and-over age group makes up 19% of residents.
54% women, 46% men
About 85 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Musselburgh | East Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 13% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 19% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 15% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 32% | 33% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
188 listed buildings in Musselburgh, 11 of them in the top category.
Newhailes House with Gatepiers: Photo: Gweduni · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Old Bridge: Photo: lynnsta · CC BY 2.0 · Newbigging Lewisvale Public Park, Bandstand: Photo: Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 49 High Street, Musselburgh Arms Hotel: Photo: Leslie Barrie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
71 notable people were born in Musselburgh.
Henry Yule: Theodore Blake Wirgman, c. 1890, Public domain · Hugh Halkett: Franz Keller, Public domain · Jim Jefferies: Alasdair Middleton from Rothesay, Scotland, CC BY 2.0 · John White: Henk Lindeboom / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · Sir Alexander Milne, 1st Baronet: Walter William Ouless, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Musselburgh | 21,476 | — | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Wallyford | 4,493 | 1.5 | — | B− | — | D |
| Danderhall | 3,389 | 2.9 | — | B | — | C− |
| Prestonpans | 10,623 | 3 | — | A− | — | D |
| Dalkeith | 15,125 | 3.3 | — | B | — | C− |
| Tranent | 12,235 | 3.9 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Cockenzie | 5,237 | 4.3 | — | B+ | — | C |
| Ormiston | 2,587 | 4.5 | — | 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.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
That is 3.6 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include High Street Tolbooth. It also has 7 scheduled monuments.
GCSE results trail 79% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £217,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 244th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Large town in East Lothian, Scotland
Musselburgh is a locality of 21,476 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.