Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 12,171 people, this town lies in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
Prices are modest for what you get: homes sell for a median £120,800, about 3 times local household income. Walkability is a strength too: on the way to work, 20% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Health is a weak point (D−): life expectancy is 73.5 for men and 78.7 for women. A Band D home pays £1,686 in council tax.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Saltcoats has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Saltcoats 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 Saltcoats is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Saltcoats has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 44 buildings inside Saltcoats’s locality, 10 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Saltcoats.
Nearly three quarters of people in Saltcoats rate their own health good or very good. At the census, one in ten residents said their health was bad or very bad, about level with North Ayrshire’s towns (9.3%) and above Scotland’s towns (7.2%). Disability touches 29% of Saltcoats’ population.
| Census 2022 | Saltcoats | North Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 74% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.7% | 9.3% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 29% | 29% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Two of its 5 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Some 2,184 pupils attend Saltcoats’s four primaries and one secondary.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Anthony's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 242 | – |
| St Matthew's AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,328 | B+ |
Private rents average £656 a month across the Ayrshires council area. 12% of households are private tenants. Social housing holds 29% of households, close to North Ayrshire’s towns (28%) and above 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.
The car took 76% of commuters, near North Ayrshire’s towns (78%) and higher than Scotland’s towns (70%). About 17% of its commuters stay in Saltcoats for work. Each working resident is matched by 0.7 jobs locally.
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 10 of them. Scaled to its population, that is 36 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in Saltcoats.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Residents of Saltcoats have a median age of 44.5. Children under 15 make up 16%, about level with Scotland’s towns (15%) and above North Ayrshire’s towns (15%). Retirement age and beyond: 20% of residents are 65 or older.
53% women, 47% men
About 90 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Saltcoats | North Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 22% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 20% | 23% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.6% | 8.9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 10% | 11% |
| Degree level | 21% | 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 Saltcoats. Best known first.
CastleArdrossan Castle800 m outside town, to the west
CastleKerelaw Castle1.2 km outside town, to the east
Abbey or prioryKilwinning Abbey4.1 km outside town, to the east
CastleBoydston Castle1.8 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumDalgarven Mill Museum of Country Life and Costume4.9 km outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
44 listed buildings in Saltcoats.
Town Hall Countess Street: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · E U Congregational Church, Hamilton Street: Photo: Leslie Barrie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
54 notable people were born in Saltcoats.
Steve Clarke: Анна Джалалян, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bobby Lennox: Joost Evers / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · Janice Galloway: summonedbyfells, CC BY 2.0 · Otto Carl Kiep: Original uploader was Nitti6 at de.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saltcoats | 12,171 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Ardrossan | 10,338 | 1 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Stevenston | 8,658 | 1.2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Kilwinning | 16,224 | 3.2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| West Kilbride | 4,876 | 4.3 | — | A− | — | C |
| Dalry | 5,274 | 5 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Irvine | 34,005 | 5.5 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Dreghorn | 3,362 | 6.9 | — | 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.
On cost of living it is the 95th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Saltcoats 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.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in North Ayrshire, Scotland
Saltcoats is a locality of 12,171 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.