Homes are affordable (A): a typical home costs £146,500 and rent runs £768 a month. Walkability is another plus: 18% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Health lags (C): life expectancy 78.1 for men, 83.6 for women. It also trails on hazard risk — 2.1% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Gourock without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Gourock is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Gourock without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Gourock.
HousingCost of living grade A
Most households in Gourock own their home: 78%, more than in Inverclyde’s towns and across Scotland’s towns
Social renters account for 8% of households. 660 sales in Gourock’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £146,500. Also worth knowing: 12% rent privately, between Inverclyde’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (13%).
£147Kmedian sale
Median sale price · 2023 to 2025, at early-2025 prices
Gourock£147K
Typical UK town£277K
78%
of households own their home · Scotland 60%
12%
rent privately · Scotland 13%
£768
average private rent a month, Renfrewshire / Inverclyde council area
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.
SchoolsB
Exam results at Gourock’s schools top 59% of Scottish towns
Two of its 5 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Some 2,432 pupils attend Gourock’s three primaries and two secondaries.
Scottish Government · school statistics and leavers’ results · The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.See all 5 schools →
Health
Just 6.7% of people in Gourock say their health is bad or very bad, fewer than in Inverclyde’s towns and across Scotland’s towns
Asked at the census, 79% of residents of Gourock said they were in good or very good health. At the census, 26% of people here had a disability, between Inverclyde’s towns (30%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Men in Gourock can expect to live to 78.1, women to 83.6 (2020–24).
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.
Work & commute
Benefit claims run low in Gourock, 1.9% of 16 to 64s, below Inverclyde’s towns and Scotland’s towns
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 33% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Gourock counts 0.4 jobs per working resident. About 11% of its commuters stay in Gourock for work. The car took 78% of commuters, higher than both Inverclyde’s towns (75%) and Scotland’s towns (70%).
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
History
Gourock’s heritage list runs to 63 buildings
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Conservation areas cover just over a tenth of Gourock’s land, below Inverclyde’s towns (14%) but above Scotland’s towns (1%). No town in Inverclyde has more listed buildings for its size than Gourock. Category B covers 21 of them.
63listed buildings
Listed buildings by grade · Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Who lives here
An older town: 27% of people in Gourock are 65 or over, more than in Inverclyde’s towns and across Scotland’s towns
12% are under 15, below Inverclyde’s towns (14%) and Scotland’s towns (15%) alike; what’s more, people aged 15 to 24 are nearly a tenth of the population. The age that splits Gourock in two is 52. Degrees are held by 34% of adults.
52median age
GourockInverclydeScotland
Ages · share of residents
27%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications15%
Apprenticeship9%
Highers or similar11%
Degree level34%
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
WomenScotlandMen
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
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.
Questions about Gourock
How many listed buildings are there in Gourock?
That is 2.6 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Is Gourock expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £146,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 177th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
How much is council tax in Gourock?
Band D council tax in Gourock is £1,674 for 2026–27, less than in 92% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Does Gourock flood?
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
About Gourock
Town in Inverclyde, Scotland
Gourock is a locality of 10,072 people, in the Inverclyde 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
Population
10,072 (Census 2022)
Council
Inverclyde
Nation
Scotland
Area
1.3 sq mi (3.4 km²)
NRS code
S52000291
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.
