CarfinNorth Lanarkshire
Over-65s are only 8% of the population. Home to 4,427 people, this town lies in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Is Carfin a good place to live?
Carfin’s best grade is for cost of living: the median home sold for £197,300, 4.5 years of area income. Health lags: life expectancy 74.4 for men, 79.6 for women. Getting around depends on the car: just over one in ten commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Natural hazards weigh less here than in most UK towns (A).
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 Carfin without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
What makes Carfin stand out
The 3 things Carfin does most differently from other towns.
How Carfin grades
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Carfin is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Carfin without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The data
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Carfin.
Private renting is less common in Carfin than in North Lanarkshire’s towns or across Scotland’s towns: 7%
71% of households own their home, higher than both North Lanarkshire’s towns (61%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). Social housing holds a fifth of households. 218 sales in Carfin’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £197,300.
Median sale price · 2023 to 2025, at early-2025 prices
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.
On exam results, Carfin’s schools beat 61% of Scottish towns
There is one school here; it is shown below. 303 pupils attend Carfin’s one primary school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our Lady & St Francis Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 303 | – |
Disability is less common in Carfin, 16% of residents, than in North Lanarkshire’s towns and Scotland’s towns
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 4.9% of the town. 86% of Carfin’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, higher than both North Lanarkshire’s towns (75%) and Scotland’s towns (78%). Women here live to 79.6 on average and men to 74.4 (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | Carfin | North Lanarkshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 86% | 75% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.9% | 9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 16% | 26% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
More commuters in Carfin drive than in North Lanarkshire’s towns or Scotland’s towns: 87%
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 33% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
1.9% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026, below both North Lanarkshire’s towns (2.8%) and Scotland’s towns (2.8%). On top of that, for 30% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
How commuters got to work · March 2022
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
No listed buildings in Carfin
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Historic Environment Scotland’s list has no building inside Carfin’s locality.
Listed buildings by grade · Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
A town of families: 22% of people in Carfin are under 15, more than in North Lanarkshire’s towns and across Scotland’s towns
Graduates make up nearly a third of adults. People 65 and over make up 7.9% of the town, below North Lanarkshire’s towns (18%) and Scotland’s towns (19%) alike. Carfin has a median age of 34.4.
Ages · share of residents
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
Women and men · all residents
49% women, 51% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Carfin | North Lanarkshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 22% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 35% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 7.9% | 18% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.2% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 13% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 32% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · North Lanarkshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Motherwell Cathedral and 3 more in and around Carfin
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Carfin. Best known first.
CathedralMotherwell Cathedral1.8 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleDalzell House2.8 km outside town, to the south
Theme parkM&D's Theme Park4.5 km outside town, to the west
MuseumMotherwell Heritage Centre2.2 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (4)
- Motherwell Cathedral: Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Dalzell House: Jonathan Oldenbuck, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- M&D's Theme Park: Gordon McKinlay, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Motherwell Heritage Centre: Chris Upson, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Everything we know about Carfin
Carfin’s neighbours
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carfin | 4,427 | — | — | A | — | D |
| Newarthill | 6,956 | 0.8 | — | A | — | D− |
| New Stevenston | 6,298 | 0.9 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Holytown | 5,121 | 1.3 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Motherwell | 33,021 | 1.7 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Cleland | 3,043 | 1.7 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Wishaw | 30,190 | 2.3 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Bellshill | 19,488 | 2.5 | — | 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.
Questions about Carfin
Who lives in Carfin?
A young town. At the 2022 Census, 22% of residents were under 15 and 35% were 25 to 44, against 15% and 26% across Scotland’s towns; only 7.9% were 65 or over.
How much is council tax in Carfin?
Band D council tax in Carfin 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.
Is Carfin expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £197,300, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 125th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
About Carfin
Town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Carfin is a locality of 4,427 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
- Population
- 4,427 (Census 2022)
- Council
- North Lanarkshire
- Nation
- Scotland
- Area
- 0.7 sq mi (1.8 km²)
- NRS code
- S52000120
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.