Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 10,338 in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
Ardrossan’s strongest subject is cost of living (A+): a typical home costs £111,700 and rent runs £656 a month. It is easy to get around without a car: just over a fifth of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Residents’ health trails most towns: life expectancy is 74 for men and 78.5 for women. The rest of its grades are middling: B for schools and B for hazard risk.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Ardrossan has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Ardrossan is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Ardrossan has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Ardrossan does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 71 buildings inside Ardrossan’s locality, 1 of them in the top category, and 2 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →71 listed buildings in Ardrossan, 1 of them in the top category.
Town Hall Glasgow Street: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Eu Congregational Church Princes Street: Photo: Leslie Barrie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ardrossan,castle: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Obelisk, Castle Hill: Photo: Leslie Barrie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ardrossan.
At the census, one in ten residents said their health was bad or very bad, above both North Ayrshire’s towns (9.3%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). A disability affects nearly a third of people in Ardrossan. Self-reported good health: 71% of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Ardrossan | North Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 71% | 74% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.9% | 9.3% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 32% | 29% | 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.
Between them, three primaries and one secondary teach 1,352 pupils in Ardrossan. Below are two of its 4 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stanley Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 384 | – |
| Ardrossan AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 722 | C− |
Owners make up 55% of households, lower than both North Ayrshire’s towns (60%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). The social rented sector houses just over a third of households. 497 sales in Ardrossan’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £111,700.
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; 26% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Just over one in ten commuters who live in Ardrossan also work there. At the census, just over a quarter of workers worked mainly from home. Jobs per working resident: 0.5. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 32%, close to North Ayrshire’s towns (32%) and below Scotland’s towns (44%).
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.
Category B covers 57 of them, Category A 1. Per 10,000 residents, Ardrossan counts 69 listed buildings. Also worth knowing: the town has 2 scheduled monuments.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
The share of residents under 15 is 14%. People aged 15 to 24 make up 11% of the town, near North Ayrshire’s towns (11%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (12%). Over-65s are nearly a quarter of the population. Line up the people of Ardrossan by age and the one in the middle is 47.5.
53% women, 47% men
About 89 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Ardrossan | North Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 22% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9.3% | 8.9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 20% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · North Ayrshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Ardrossan. Best known first.
CastleArdrossan Castlein town
CastleKerelaw Castle2.7 km outside town, to the east
CastleBoydston Castle100 m outside town, to the northwest
CastleLaw Castle4.6 km outside town, to the northwestMuseumMuseumNorth Ayrshire Heritage Centre800 m outside town, to the southeastMuseumMuseumWest Kilbride Museum4.8 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
27 notable people were born in Ardrossan.
John Kerr: Thomas Annan, Public domain · Dugald Drummond: Possibly John Palmer Clarke, Public domain · Gordon Jackson: The original uploader was GiollaUidir at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 uk
Town in North Ayrshire, Scotland
Ardrossan is a locality of 10,338 people, in the North Ayrshire 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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardrossan | 10,338 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Saltcoats | 12,171 | 1 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Stevenston | 8,658 | 2.2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| West Kilbride | 4,876 | 3.4 | — | A− | — | C |
| Kilwinning | 16,224 | 4 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Dalry | 5,274 | 5.2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Irvine | 34,005 | 6.5 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Dreghorn | 3,362 | 7.9 | — | A+ | — | D |
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.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £111,700, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 92nd most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
That is 2.8 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A building is St Peter-in-Chains Rc Church Pavilion Place and South Crescent. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Band D council tax in Ardrossan is £1,686 for 2026–27, less than in 91% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
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.