Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 5,681 in Highland, Scotland. Band D council tax is £1,634.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Westhill has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is hazard risk (A): 0% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Its weakest is health (C): life expectancy 78.9 for men, 81.4 for women. The median home sold for £231,300 in the last three years, 5.2 times what households in the Highland council area earn in a year.
The 3 things Westhill 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 Westhill is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Westhill has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 3 buildings inside Westhill’s locality, 3 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Westhill. Best known first.
CathedralInverness Cathedral2.5 km outside town, to the west
Historic houseInverness Castle2.2 km outside town, to the west
MuseumInverness Museum & Art Gallery2.2 km outside town, to the west
Museum · National Trust for ScotlandCulloden Battlefield Visitor Centre2.4 km outside town, to the east
Historic houseCulloden House1.2 km outside town, to the northeastMuseumMuseum · National Trust for ScotlandAbertarff House2.3 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Westhill.
9% rent privately, below both Highland’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (13%). Social renters account for 12% of households. Westhill is the second most expensive of the 16 towns in Highland, at £231,300.
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.
Its only school is listed below. 231 pupils attend Westhill’s one primary school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cradlehall Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 231 | – |
Women here live to 81.4 on average and men to 78.9 (2020–24). At the census, 22% of people here had a disability, below Highland’s towns (24%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike.
| Census 2022 | Westhill | Highland | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.1% | 6.6% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 22% | 24% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, 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; 26% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
79% of commuters drove, above both Highland’s towns (72%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). Westhill counts 0.7 jobs per working resident. For 57% 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.
Inside Westhill’s locality, Historic Environment Scotland lists 3 listed buildings, 3 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Over-65s are 22% of the population. Children under 15 make up 14%, below Highland’s towns (16%) and Scotland’s towns (15%) alike. Westhill has a median age of 44.6 years.
54% women, 46% men
About 87 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Westhill | Highland | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 15% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 22% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 18% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.9% | 8.7% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 13% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 32% | 27% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Highland and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westhill | 5,681 | — | — | A− | — | C |
| Smithton | 2,905 | 0.6 | — | A | — | D |
| Culloden | 3,699 | 1.3 | — | A | — | C |
| Milton of Leys | 3,168 | 1.6 | — | A− | — | B+ |
| Inverness | 48,257 | 2.6 | — | A | — | D |
| Muir of Ord | 2,832 | 12 | — | A | — | 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.
Band D council tax in Westhill is £1,634 for 2026–27, less than in 93% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
Town in Highland, Scotland
Westhill is a locality of 5,681 people, in the Highland 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.