Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,816 in council tax. With 18,088 residents, it is a town in Midlothian, Scotland.
Walkability is its strong suit (A) — 25% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Residents’ health trails most towns (C−): life expectancy 78.6 for men, 81.7 for women. At a median £231,600, a home costs 4.5 times the yearly income of households in the Midlothian council area. It also trails on schools: school leavers’ results beat 30% of Scottish towns.
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Bonnyrigg without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 2 things Bonnyrigg 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 Bonnyrigg is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Bonnyrigg without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 59 buildings inside Bonnyrigg’s locality, 2 of them in the top category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Bonnyrigg. Best known first.
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandCraigmillar Castle4.8 km outside town, to the north
CastleDalhousie Castle1 km outside town, to the southeast
CastleRoslin Castle2.1 km outside town, to the southwest
Abbey or prioryNewbattle Abbey1.3 km outside town, to the northeast
CastleDalkeith Palace2.3 km outside town, to the northeast
Historic houseMelville Castle800 m 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 Bonnyrigg.
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.
For 32% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. 74% of commuters drove, above both Midlothian’s towns (72%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 2.1%.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Bonnyrigg’s five primaries and one secondary have 3,219 pupils between them. Two of its 6 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burnbrae Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 423 | – |
| Lasswade High School CentreLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,637 | B |
81% of Bonnyrigg’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, above both Midlothian’s towns (80%) and Scotland’s towns (78%). Disability touches 22% of the town’s population. What’s more, at the census, 5.9% of people here described their health as bad or very bad.
| Census 2022 | Bonnyrigg | Midlothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 80% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.9% | 6.2% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 22% | 23% | 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Only one town in Midlothian has more listed buildings for its size than Bonnyrigg. Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 59 listed buildings locally: 2 Category A, 32 Category B. One garden or designed landscape lies in the town.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Social housing holds 19% of households. 72% of households own their home, higher than both Midlothian’s towns (66%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). 866 sales in Bonnyrigg’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £231,600.
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.
Children under 15 make up 17%, near Midlothian’s towns (18%) and higher than Scotland’s towns (15%). The median resident of Bonnyrigg is 42.4 years old. Aged 15 to 24: 11% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Bonnyrigg | Midlothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 18% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 27% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 27% |
| 65+ | 19% | 19% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 9.6% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 29% | 27% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Midlothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
59 listed buildings in Bonnyrigg, 2 of them in the top category.
Lasswade Viaduct: Photo: Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lasswade, High Street, Brigdgend House: Photo: John Riddell · CC BY-SA 2.0
10 notable people were born in Bonnyrigg.
Michael Leslie: Benutzer:Bill da Flute, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Richard Baird Smith: George Dance, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonnyrigg | 18,088 | — | — | B | — | C− |
| Loanhead | 7,007 | 1.9 | — | B− | — | C− |
| Mayfield | 14,259 | 2.2 | — | B+ | — | D |
| Dalkeith | 15,125 | 2.3 | — | B | — | C− |
| Danderhall | 3,389 | 2.9 | — | B | — | C− |
| Gorebridge | 8,900 | 3 | — | B+ | — | D |
| Penicuik | 16,431 | 5 | — | B | — | C− |
| Musselburgh | 21,476 | 5.2 | — | 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.
Band D council tax in Bonnyrigg is £1,816 for 2026–27, less than in 86% 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.
Town in Midlothian, Scotland
Bonnyrigg is a locality of 18,088 people, in the Midlothian 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.
