Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Band D council tax is £1,698. A town of 12,235 in East Lothian, Scotland.
Tranent’s strongest is walkability: 23% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Housing is within reach (B+): the median home sold for £215,100, 4 years of area income. Pupils here do less well than most (D): school leavers’ results beat just over a tenth of Scottish towns. Health outcomes fall short of most towns (C−): men here can expect to live to 78.2, women to 81.6.
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS. Tranent has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Tranent does most differently from other towns.
American towns are graded separately.
Tranent has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 24 buildings inside Tranent’s locality, 15 of them in the second category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Tranent.
The share of residents under 15 is 18%. 17% of residents are 65 or over, lower than both East Lothian’s towns (21%) and Scotland’s towns (19%). Tranent has a median age of 41.9.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Tranent | East Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 17% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 15% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 11% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 13% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 22% | 33% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Some 2,162 pupils attend Tranent’s three primaries and one secondary. Of its 4 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windygoul Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 518 | – |
| Ross High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,225 | C− |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 29% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
The car took 76% of commuters, higher than both East Lothian’s towns (70%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). For every resident in work, Tranent has 0.4 jobs. Just over one in ten commuters who live in Tranent also work there.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
6.4% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, between East Lothian’s towns (5.9%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). Asked at the census, nearly four in five residents of Tranent said they were in good or very good health. Disability touches 24% of the town’s population.
| Census 2022 | Tranent | East Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.4% | 5.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 24% | 23% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
30% live in social housing, higher than both East Lothian’s towns (23%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Tranent is the second cheapest of the 11 towns in East Lothian, at £215,100. 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Per 10,000 residents, Tranent counts 20 listed buildings. Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 24 listed buildings in the town: 15 Category B. Conservation areas cover 6% of the town’s land, between East Lothian’s towns (16%) and Scotland’s towns (1%).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Tranent. Best known first.
CastleFa'side Castle2.2 km outside town, to the southwest
CastlePreston Tower800 m outside town, to the northwest
Garden · National Trust for ScotlandInveresk Lodge Garden4.7 km outside town, to the west
Historic houseCarberry Tower4.1 km outside town, to the southwest
MuseumPrestongrange Mining Museum2.4 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseum1722 Waggonway Heritage Centre2 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
24 listed buildings in Tranent.
Tranent Parish Church (Church of Scotland) with Graveyard Walls, Gatepiers, Gates and Gravestones: Photo: james denham · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 10 Fowler Street: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Church Street, House by Parish Church Hall: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 121 Church Street: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0
11 notable people were born in Tranent.
Gelie Duncan: Carolyn Sutton, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tranent | 12,235 | — | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Prestonpans | 10,623 | 1.5 | — | A− | — | D |
| Cockenzie | 5,237 | 1.9 | — | B+ | — | C |
| Ormiston | 2,587 | 2.1 | — | B | — | C− |
| Wallyford | 4,493 | 2.4 | — | B− | — | D |
| Longniddry | 2,598 | 3 | — | C− | — | B |
| Musselburgh | 21,476 | 3.9 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Dalkeith | 15,125 | 5.4 | — | 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.
GCSE results trail 89% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £215,100, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 243rd most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in East Lothian, Scotland
Tranent is a locality of 12,235 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.