Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Council tax at Band D comes to £1,506. It is a town of 4,577 residents in Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland.
Cost of living is its strong suit: homes sell for a median £125,100, about 3 times local household income. Health is its weak spot (D) — men here can expect to live to 74, women to 77. It lags on schools as well (C−): school leavers’ results beat 25% of Scottish towns. Its listed buildings number 71, with 1 at Category A.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Stornoway has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
The 3 things Stornoway 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 Stornoway is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Stornoway has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 71 buildings inside Stornoway’s locality, 1 of them in the top category.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1903.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Stornoway.
Nearly three quarters of Stornoway’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, about level with Na h-Eileanan Siar’s towns (74%) and below Scotland’s towns (78%). Disability touches 28% of the town’s population. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 8% of the town.
| Census 2022 | Stornoway | Na h-Eileanan Siar | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 74% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8% | 8% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 28% | 28% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
Between them, one primary and two secondaries teach 1,368 pupils in Stornoway. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stornoway Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 309 | – |
| The Nicolson InstituteLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,059 | C |
8% of households rent privately. Private rents average £816 a month across the Highland and Islands council area. Social housing holds 30% of households, near Na h-Eileanan Siar’s towns (30%) and higher than Scotland’s towns (24%).
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; 27% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Unemployment benefit claims came to 3.2% of 16 to 64s in 2026, above Scotland’s towns (2.8%). For 88% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. Walking ranked second among ways to work, at 21%.
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.
The top grade, Category A, goes to 1 of them. Conservation areas cover 9% of Stornoway’s land, higher than Scotland’s towns (1%). One garden or designed landscape lies here.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
8.9% of the population is aged 15 to 24, close to Na h-Eileanan Siar’s towns (8.9%) and below Scotland’s towns (12%). The median resident of Stornoway is 50.7 years old.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Stornoway | Na h-Eileanan Siar | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 12% | 12% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.9% | 8.9% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 23% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 28% | 28% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 20% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9.8% | 9.8% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 28% | 28% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Na h-Eileanan Siar and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Stornoway. Best known first.
Art galleryAn Lanntairin town
CastleCaisteal Leòdhais300 m outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumLewis Loom Centrein townMuseumMuseumMuseum nan Eilean400 m outside town, to the westAttractionAttractionStornoway Waterwheel100 m outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
71 listed buildings in Stornoway, 1 of them in the top category.
North Beach Quay/North Beach Old Sail Loft and House Adjoining: Photo: Anne Burgess · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Matheson Road and Scotland Street, Free Presbyterian Church Including Boundary Walls, Gates and Railings: Photo: LornaMCampbell · CC BY-SA 4.0 · War Memorial: Photo: LornaMCampbell · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Springfield Road Tower of Nicolson Institute: Photo: LornaMCampbell · CC BY-SA 4.0
27 notable people were born in Stornoway.
Alexander Mackenzie: Thomas Lawrence, Public domain · Ken MacLeod: Johan Jönsson (Julle), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Colin Mackenzie: Thomas Hickey (1741–1824), Public domain · Agnes Mure Mackenzie: Bassano Ltd, Public domain
On cost of living it is the 159th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
That is 6.4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A building is North Beach Quay/North Beach Old Sail Loft and House Adjoining.
Band D council tax in Stornoway is £1,506 for 2026–27, less than in 98% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
GCSE results trail 76% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Stornoway has 3 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Town in Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland
Stornoway is a locality of 4,577 people, in the Na h-Eileanan Siar 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.