Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Population 17,608: a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland.
Barrhead’s strongest is cost of living: a typical home costs £192,400 and rent runs £1,168 a month. The weak point is health — life expectancy 75.5 for men, 80.5 for women. It also trails on hazard risk (C): 2% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. Band D council tax is £1,620.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Barrhead without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Barrhead 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 Barrhead is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Barrhead without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 14 buildings inside Barrhead’s locality, 7 of them in the second category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Barrhead. Best known first.
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandCrookston Castle2.3 km outside town, to the northeast
CathedralSt Mirin's Cathedral3.8 km outside town, to the north
Historic house · National Trust for ScotlandPollok House3.4 km outside town, to the northeast
CastleMearns Castle4.8 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumPaisley Museum and Art Galleries3.8 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumGlasgow Museums Resource Centre100 m outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Barrhead.
Private renters make up 7% of households, between East Renfrewshire’s towns (6%) and Scotland’s towns (13%). Nearly two thirds of households own their home. Behind the median of £192,400: 913 sales in Barrhead’s data zones, 2023 to 2025.
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.
Two of its 5 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Barrhead’s four primaries and one secondary have 1,828 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mark's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 366 | – |
| Barrhead High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 656 | A− |
Barrhead’s share in bad or very bad health, 8.8%, is the highest of the 10 towns in East Renfrewshire. At the census, 27% of people here had a disability, above East Renfrewshire’s towns (20%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike. Self-reported good health: 76% of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Barrhead | East Renfrewshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 83% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.8% | 5.3% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 27% | 20% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as 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.
77% of commuters drove, close to East Renfrewshire’s towns (79%) and above Scotland’s towns (70%). For just over a quarter of commuters, work was under 5 km away. About 14% of its commuters stay in Barrhead for work. Unemployment benefit claims reached 2.8% of 16 to 64s in 2026.
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.
Category B covers 7 of them. One scheduled monument lies in Barrhead. Relative to its size, Barrhead keeps 8 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, between East Renfrewshire’s towns (5) and Scotland’s towns (22).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Children under 15 make up 16%, about level with Scotland’s towns (15%) and below East Renfrewshire’s towns (18%). Young adults of 15 to 24 account for 10% of the town. Residents of Barrhead have a median age of 44.8.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Barrhead | East Renfrewshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 18% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 21% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 20% | 22% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 12% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9.2% | 6% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 12% | 11% |
| Degree level | 27% | 44% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Renfrewshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
14 listed buildings in Barrhead.
Viaduct at Salterland: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bourock Parish Church, Main Street.: Photo: Chris Upson · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wraes Mill: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Salterland Road, Bridge at Salterland: Photo: wfmillar · CC BY-SA 2.0
37 notable people were born in Barrhead.
John Davidson: James Russell (1809-1899) photographer, Public domain · Bob McPhail: Detroit Free Press, Public domain · Lee Ashcroft: Stuartp1213, CC0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrhead | 17,608 | — | — | A | — | D |
| Neilston | 5,459 | 1.8 | — | A | — | C+ |
| Newton Mearns | 28,447 | 2.9 | — | B+ | — | A− |
| Thornliebank | 4,084 | 3 | — | A | — | C− |
| Paisley | 79,351 | 3 | — | A | — | D− |
| Giffnock | 11,963 | 3.8 | — | B+ | — | B+ |
| Clarkston | 9,486 | 4.3 | — | B+ | — | A+ |
| Elderslie | 5,632 | 4.3 | — | 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.
Band D council tax in Barrhead is £1,620 for 2026–27, less than in 94% 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 £192,400, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 121st most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland
Barrhead is a locality of 17,608 people, in the East Renfrewshire 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.