Photo: Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0How Fife stacks up
Only two Scottish council areas get fewer of their school leavers to five or more National 5 awards than Fife: 60% of school leavers have five or more awards at National 5 level or better. It struggles most with slow growth. It has no overall grade yet: Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime we can reuse, so there is no Safety grade to weigh.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
Not gradedNot graded yet: no street-level crime for Scotland. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime that we can reuse, so Scottish council areas, like Scottish towns, have no Safety grade yet, and without one no overall grade. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, due at the end of 2026, should bring newer crime figures by small area; we plan to grade Scottish safety on them.
Schools
82nd of 90D9/100 Schools are a real weak spot. Among Scotland’s council areas it ranks 3rd lowest for school leavers’ results: 60% leave with five or more National 5 awards or better. Top-quarter towns are rare here; Tayport comes closest at #324.
Source: Scottish Government school leaver attainment, 2022/23 to 2024/25: leavers with five or more awards at SCQF level 5 (National 5) or better, every state secondary in the council area. Ranked among Scotland’s council areas.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 26 Fife towns.
Cost of living
30th of 98B+70/100 Affordable with few exceptions. Nearly every town does well here, Methil and Buckhaven among them. Registers of Scotland sales put the typical home at £182,700, or 4.1 years of average household income, against 4.4 across Scotland. No neighbour beats it on affordability; Perth and Kinross comes closest.
Typical sale price: £182,700 (6,753 sales, 19th lowest).
Private rent £832 a month (33rd lowest); Band D council tax £1,574 (5th lowest), before water and sewerage charges. Shown for context.
Source: Registers of Scotland sales September 2025 to August 2026 (median estimated from monthly figures); household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; private rents for the wider Scottish broad rental area; council Band D 2026/27.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 26 Fife towns.
Health
63rd of 98C+36/100 Health a notch below average. Fife ranks 16th shortest for healthy life expectancy, at 59.0 years. 60% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Kirkcaldy and Dysart and Glenrothes.
Life expectancy at birth: 79.1 years, 15th shortest.
Source: National Records of Scotland healthy life expectancy and life expectancy by council area, 2022 to 2024, men and women averaged. A survey-based figure, so ranked among Scotland’s council areas only.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 26 Fife towns.
Jobs & income
78th of 98C−21/100 Lower incomes than most areas. Fife ranks 25th lowest for household income, at £44,200 a year before tax. Both its neighbours, Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire, score higher.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 3.4% of working-age adults (35th highest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head, 2022, and household size (Scotland has no small-area income figures); DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Fife has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
35th of 98B+65/100 A bit less car-bound than most. 18% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 25% across Scotland (43rd lowest of 98 areas). Town by town it lands near the middle, with St Andrews its best at #48 of 2,515.
Worked mainly from home at the 2022 Census: 30% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: Scotland’s Census 2022, method of travel to work by council area; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 26 Fife towns.
Flood risk
14th of 87A85/100 Lower flood risk than most. SEPA puts 1,084 homes in its towns at high or medium flood risk, 0.8% of them. Few places anywhere beat Buckhaven, #4 of 2,452 towns for flood risk. Among its neighbours it does best on flood risk, with Clackmannanshire second.
Source: SEPA flood maps (rivers and the sea, high and medium likelihood), homes in every town of the council area. SEPA’s bands differ from England’s, so ranked among Scotland’s council areas.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 26 Fife towns.
Growth
74th of 98C25/100 Population barely moving. The population grew 2.6% between 2011 and 2024, to 374,810, against 4.6% across Scotland (24th slowest).
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +1.1% (28th slowest).
Source: National Records of Scotland mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Fife has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Fife compares to its neighbours
Fife beats every neighbour on cost of living and flood risk; on jobs and income, every neighbour beats it.
| Fife | Perth and Kinross | Clackmannanshire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | No overall grade | No overall grade | No overall grade |
| Safety | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Schools | D 930th official · 2% in top towns | B+ 7011th official · 18% in top towns | D− 132nd official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B+ 7028th official · 92% in top towns | B+ 6944th official · 100% in top towns | B+ 6824th official · 88% in top towns |
| Health | C+ 3617th official · 5% in top towns | A− 764th official · 17% in top towns | C− 2227th official · 6% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C− 2174th official | B+ 6852nd official | C+ 3679th official |
| Getting about | B+ 6556th official · 6% in top towns | B+ 7130th official · 3% in top towns | C− 1977th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | A 857th official · 66% in top towns | B 5610th official · 18% in top towns | B 6321st official · 44% in top towns |
| Growth | C 2575th official | B− 4660th official | D 1486th official |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.