Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a town of 5,266 residents in Fife, Scotland.
Housing is within reach: a typical home costs £125,200 and rent runs £868 a month. Schools lag (D−): school leavers’ results beat 2% of Scottish towns. Health lags: life expectancy is 76.7 for men and 77.8 for women. Hazard risk is weaker too: 2% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Cardenden and Auchterderran without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Cardenden and Auchterderran 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 Cardenden and Auchterderran is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Cardenden and Auchterderran without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 9 buildings inside Cardenden and Auchterderran’s locality, 5 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Cardenden and Auchterderran.
Residents of Cardenden and Auchterderran have a median age of 44.9. People aged 15 to 24 make up a tenth of the town. 17% are under 15, above both Fife’s towns (16%) and Scotland’s towns (15%); what’s more, the 65-and-over age group makes up 22% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Cardenden and Auchterderran | Fife | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 27% | 27% |
| 65+ | 22% | 20% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 26% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 11% | 8.2% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9.2% | 12% | 11% |
| Degree level | 14% | 27% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Fife and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Some 422 pupils attend Cardenden and Auchterderran’s three primaries. One of its 3 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denend Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 160 | – |
73% of Cardenden and Auchterderran’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, below Fife’s towns (77%) and Scotland’s towns (78%) alike. A disability affects 31% of people locally. In addition, at the census, a tenth of people here described their health as bad or very bad.
| Census 2022 | Cardenden and Auchterderran | Fife | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 73% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.8% | 7.2% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 31% | 26% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · 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.
Owners make up 54% of households. Social housing holds 40% of households, above Fife’s towns (24%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike. Behind the median of £125,200: 177 sales in Cardenden and Auchterderran’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.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 25% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
6% of commuters who live in Cardenden and Auchterderran also work there. The car took 85% of commuters, above both Fife’s towns (78%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). For 17% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
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.
For its size, Cardenden and Auchterderran has 17 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, below Fife’s towns (33) and Scotland’s towns (22) alike.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Cardenden and Auchterderran. Best known first.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardenden and Auchterderran | 5,266 | — | — | A | — | D− |
| Lochgelly | 7,157 | 2.3 | — | A | — | D− |
| Ballingry | 5,823 | 2.8 | — | A | — | D− |
| Kirkcaldy and Dysart | 51,135 | 3.7 | — | A | — | D |
| Leslie | 2,888 | 4.3 | — | A | — | D |
| Cowdenbeath and Lumphinnans | 11,979 | 4.4 | — | A | — | D− |
| Glenrothes | 37,466 | 4.7 | — | A | — | D |
| Kelty | 6,898 | 4.8 | — | 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.
GCSE results trail 98% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Cardenden and Auchterderran has 3 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £125,200, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 142nd most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Cardenden and Auchterderran is £1,574 for 2026–27, less than in 97% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Town in Fife, Scotland
Cardenden and Auchterderran is a locality of 5,266 people, in the Fife 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.