Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 35,847 people live in this large town, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. A Band D home pays £1,555 in council tax.
Homes are affordable (A+): a typical home costs £137,500 and rent runs £779 a month. Its lowest grade is for health: life expectancy is 73.9 for men and 78 for women. The rest of its grades are middling: C+ for schools and B for walkability. Natural hazards are less of a worry than in most UK towns (A−): 0.1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · commuting, Census 2022 · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Airdrie without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Airdrie 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 Airdrie is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Airdrie without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 53 buildings inside Airdrie’s locality, 24 of them in the second category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Airdrie.
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects a tenth of the town. Nearly three quarters of Airdrie’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, below North Lanarkshire’s towns (75%) and Scotland’s towns (78%) alike. Disability touches 28% of the town’s population.
| Census 2022 | Airdrie | North Lanarkshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 75% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.6% | 9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 28% | 26% | 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.
Below are two of its 16 schools, each with why it was picked. Some 5,831 pupils attend Airdrie’s 12 primaries and three secondaries.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hilltop Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 419 | – |
| St Margaret's High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,119 | B− |
9% rent privately, higher than North Lanarkshire’s towns (9%) yet lower than Scotland’s towns (13%). Council and housing-body homes hold 29% of households. It is the 15th most expensive of 24 towns of 2,500+ in North Lanarkshire.
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; 30% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
The car carried 80% of commuters at the census. 3.5% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026, above North Lanarkshire’s towns (2.7%) and Scotland’s towns (2.8%) alike. Airdrie counts 0.8 jobs per working resident. Work in town: nearly a quarter of resident commuters.
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.
Airdrie counts 53 listed buildings on the national list (Historic Environment Scotland): 24 Category B. No town in North Lanarkshire has more listed buildings for its size than Airdrie. The national list protects one ancient monument locally.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Degrees are held by 22% of adults. Airdrie has a median age of 43 years. One measure of family life: 16% of residents are under 15.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Airdrie | North Lanarkshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 19% | 18% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.3% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9.9% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 22% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · North Lanarkshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Airdrie. Best known first.
MuseumSummerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life1.6 km outside town, to the westHistoric siteHistoric siteBarclay1.5 km outside town, to the westHistoric siteHistoric siteClass 311 'Blue Train'1.4 km outside town, to the westHistoric siteHistoric siteGMAM Garratt Articulated locomotive 41121.6 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumMargaret Skinnider Heritage Centre1.4 km outside town, to the westHistoric siteHistoric siteNCB № 91.5 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
53 listed buildings in Airdrie.
Coatdyke, Centenary Avenue, Railway Viaduct: Photo: G Laird · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wellwynd, Former West Parish Church: Photo: Jim Smillie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wellwynd, Airdrie Public Library: Photo: Jim Smillie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 2-10 (Even Nos) Hallcraig Street, Airdrie Market Building: Photo: Jonathan Thacker · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
87 notable people were born in Airdrie.
Barry Bannan: Timmy96, CC0 · Ian Bannen: MGM, Public domain · Alex Neil: Alasdair Middleton from Rothesay, Scotland, CC BY 2.0 · Leo Cushley: Scottish Government, CC BY 2.0 · John Kennedy: Якушкин Иван, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sandy Clark: Exxy, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airdrie | 35,847 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Plains | 3,122 | 1.9 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Chapelhall | 7,061 | 2.1 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Coatbridge | 42,256 | 2.3 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Holytown | 5,121 | 3.2 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Glenboig | 3,035 | 3.5 | — | A− | — | D |
| Newarthill | 6,956 | 3.7 | — | A | — | D− |
| New Stevenston | 6,298 | 3.8 | — | 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 £137,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 66th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Airdrie is £1,555 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.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Airdrie is a locality of 35,847 people, in the North Lanarkshire 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.