Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
66 listed buildings, 0 of them in the top category. In North Ayrshire, Scotland, this town has 5,773 residents.
Beith’s strongest subject is cost of living — the median home sold for £128,300, 3.2 years of area income. Where it falls short is health (D): life expectancy 75.5 for men, 80.8 for women. Hazard risk is lower than in most UK towns (A). It lags on schools as well: school leavers’ results beat 37% of Scottish towns.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Beith has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Beith 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 Beith is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Beith has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 66 buildings inside Beith’s locality, 35 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Beith.
Two thirds of households own their home, above North Ayrshire’s towns (60%) and Scotland’s towns (60%) alike. Private rents average £656 a month across the Ayrshires council area. The median, £128,300, rests on 326 sales in Beith’s data zones from 2023 to 2025.
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.
Below is its only school. 308 pupils attend Beith’s one primary school. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beith Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 308 | – |
At the census, 27% of people here had a disability, lower than North Ayrshire’s towns (29%) yet higher than Scotland’s towns (24%). Nearly three quarters of people in Beith rate their own health good or very good. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 8.8% of the town.
| Census 2022 | Beith | North Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 74% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.8% | 9.3% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 27% | 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Category B covers 35 of them. Beith has 66 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 35 Category B. Of the town’s land, 3% lies in conservation areas, above North Ayrshire’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%) alike.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 28% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Just over one in ten commuters who live in Beith also work there. The car took 83% of commuters, above North Ayrshire’s towns (78%) and Scotland’s towns (70%) alike. For 23% 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 15-to-24 age group: 9.8%, lower than both North Ayrshire’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (12%). 24% of residents are 65 or over. At 49.3, the median resident of Beith sits in the middle of the age range. Graduates make up a quarter of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Beith | North Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 13% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.8% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 22% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 31% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 24% | 23% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 10% | 8.9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 25% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · North Ayrshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
66 listed buildings in Beith.
62 Eglinton Street, Whang House, Including Ruined Chapel to Rear, Boundary Walls and Gatepiers: Photo: Rosser1954 Roger Griffith · CC BY-SA 3.0 · The Cross, Old Parish Church and Burial Ground, Including Vault and Boundary Walls: Photo: Rosser1954 Roger Griffith · Public domain · Janefield Place, War Memorial: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 41 Laigh Road and 43 Woodside Road Victoria Villa, Including Boundary Walls and Gatepiers: Photo: David Fiddes · CC BY-SA 2.0
22 notable people were born in Beith.
Jemma Reekie: Dave Atkinson, CC BY 2.0 · Archibald Clark: 1860_Parliament.jpg: John Nicol Crombie derivative work: Schwede66, Public domain · James Clark: John Robert Hanna (died 1915), Public domain · William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick: CharlesDennisHunter, CC BY-SA 4.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beith | 5,773 | — | — | A+ | — | D |
| Kilbirnie | 7,110 | 2.1 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Lochwinnoch | 2,769 | 3.3 | — | A− | — | B− |
| Dalry | 5,274 | 4.5 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Stewarton | 7,870 | 6.6 | — | A+ | — | C |
| Kilbarchan | 3,367 | 6.7 | — | A | — | C+ |
| Kilwinning | 16,224 | 7.1 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Johnstone | 16,477 | 7.2 | — | 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 £128,300, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 99th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
That is 4.7 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size.
Band D council tax in Beith 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.
Town in North Ayrshire, Scotland
Beith is a locality of 5,773 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
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.