Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 14,875 in the Falkirk council area, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Bo'ness has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A−): the 216th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns: median sale £158,200, 3.6 years of area income; rent £930 a month. Its weakest is health (D): life expectancy 76.7 for men, 81.4 for women.
The 3 things Bo'ness 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 Bo'ness is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Bo'ness has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 95 buildings inside Bo'ness’s locality, 6 of them in the top category, and 5 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Bo'ness. Best known first.
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandKinneil Housein town
MuseumMuseum of Scottish Railwaysin town
PalaceLinlithgow Palace2.7 km outside town, to the south
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandBlackness Castle3.4 km outside town, to the east
Historic house · National Trust for ScotlandHouse of the Binns3.5 km outside town, to the southeast
Abbey or prioryCulross Abbey4.3 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Bo'ness.
Women here live to 81.4 on average and men to 76.7 (2020–24). These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy and early deaths.
| Census 2022 | Bo'ness | Falkirk council area | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7% | 7.2% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 25% | 25% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL
Two of its 6 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grange Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 245 | – |
| Bo'ness AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 817 | B+ |
Private renters make up 8% of households, close to Falkirk council area’s towns (9%) and below Scotland’s towns (13%).
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
In the comparison, Bo'ness comes above both Falkirk council area’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%). No town in the Falkirk council area has more listed buildings for its size than Bo'ness.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
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.
For Bo'ness, that is below both Falkirk council area’s towns (17%) and Scotland’s towns (27%). 83% of commuters drove to work at the census.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Bo'ness sits below both Falkirk council area’s towns (10%) and Scotland’s towns (12%) on this measure. Over-65s are 21% of the population. Bo'ness has a median age of 44.8.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Bo'ness | Falkirk council area | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.3% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 21% | 19% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9.3% | 9.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 24% | 26% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Falkirk council area and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
95 listed buildings in Bo'ness, 6 of them in the top category.
North Street, The Hippodrome: Photo: Kim Traynor · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kinneil House including footbridge over Gil Burn, gatepiers to west and east and boundary walls, Bo'ness: Photo: M J Richardson · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 14 - 20 (Even Nos) Union Street and 3 - 11 (Odd Nos) Register Street, Former Custom House: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Market Street, Clydesdale Bank: Photo: Stinglehammer · CC BY-SA 4.0
32 notable people were born in Bo'ness.
Grace Cadell: John Campbell Harper (died 1947), 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bo'ness | 14,875 | — | — | A− | — | D |
| Linlithgow | 12,522 | 2.4 | — | A | — | B− |
| Polmont | 5,044 | 4.3 | — | A− | — | C+ |
| Grangemouth | 16,028 | 4.4 | — | A | — | D− |
| Maddiston | 3,835 | 4.4 | — | B | — | C− |
| Cairneyhill | 2,657 | 4.4 | — | A | — | B− |
| Brightons | 4,048 | 4.9 | — | B+ | — | C+ |
| Redding | 3,812 | 5.6 | — | 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 2.6 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Bo'ness Station Including Former Haymarket Train Shed, Former Wormit Station Building, Signal Box and Gantry, Footbridge, Goods Office, Goods Yard, Water Tank and Lamp Standards. It also has 5 scheduled monuments.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £158,200, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 216th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
GCSE results beat 77% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Town in Falkirk, Scotland
Bo'ness is a locality of 14,875 people, in the Falkirk 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.