Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,555 in council tax. 42,256 residents make their home in this large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Coatbridge’s strongest is cost of living (A+): homes sell for a median £128,900, about 2.9 times local household income. Fewer journeys need a car: 18% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Health is its weak spot (D−) — men here can expect to live to 73.3, women to 77.5. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: 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. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Coatbridge has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Coatbridge 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 Coatbridge is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Coatbridge has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 39 buildings inside Coatbridge’s locality, 25 of them in the second category, and 4 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Coatbridge. Best known first.
MuseumSummerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Lifein town
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandBothwell Castle4.1 km outside town, to the southwest
Museum · National Trust for ScotlandDavid Livingstone Museum4.7 km outside town, to the southwest
Theme parkM&D's Theme Park4.7 km outside town, to the southHistoric siteHistoric siteBarclayin townHistoric siteHistoric siteClass 311 'Blue Train'in townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Coatbridge.
Self-reported good health: nearly three quarters of Coatbridge’s residents. At the census, one in ten residents said their health was bad or very bad, above both North Lanarkshire’s towns (9%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). Add to that, 28% of residents in Coatbridge live with a disability.
| Census 2022 | Coatbridge | North Lanarkshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 75% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 10% | 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 · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Two of its 24 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. St Ambrose High School’s results beat 84% of schools in Scotland like it. Between them, 15 primaries and three secondaries teach 7,090 pupils in Coatbridge.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Timothy's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 439 | – |
| St Ambrose High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,534 | A− |
9% rent privately, higher than North Lanarkshire’s towns (9%) yet lower than Scotland’s towns (13%). Social renters account for 31% of households. Behind the median of £128,900: 1,910 sales in Coatbridge’s data zones, 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.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 29% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
For every resident in work, Coatbridge has 0.7 jobs. About 27% of its commuters stay in Coatbridge for work. The car took 77% of commuters, between North Lanarkshire’s towns (80%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). 44% of commuters travelled under 5 km to work.
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.
Of Coatbridge’s land, 7% lies in conservation areas, higher than both North Lanarkshire’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%). Category B covers 25 of them. Also worth knowing: this North Lanarkshire town has 4 scheduled monuments.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Coatbridge has a median age of 42.6 years. People 65 and over make up 17% of the town, about level with North Lanarkshire’s towns (18%) and below Scotland’s towns (19%). Children under 15 count for 16% of the people here.
51% women, 49% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Coatbridge | North Lanarkshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 17% | 18% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 24% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.3% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 20% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · North Lanarkshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
39 listed buildings in Coatbridge.
Dunbeth Road, Municipal Buildings, Including Boundary Walls,_Railings, Gatepiers and Gates: Photo: ML5 · Public domain · Academy Street, Carnegie Library, Including Boundary Wall and Gatepiers: Photo: Jayhoolihan · Public domain · Railway Bridge over Coatbridge Cross: Photo: Stevie Spiers · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Holy Trinity and All Saints Roman Catholic Church, Muiryhall Street East and Quarry Street: Photo: Jonathan Thacker · CC BY-SA 2.0
109 notable people were born in Coatbridge.
Mark Millar: Luigi Novi, CC BY 3.0 · Chris Iwelumo: Jon Candy, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Tony Watt: Jon Candy from Cardiff, Wales, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Stephen Welsh: Jim Easton, CC0 · Peter Grant: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coatbridge | 42,256 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Bargeddie | 3,567 | 1.8 | — | A− | — | D |
| Airdrie | 35,847 | 2.3 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Viewpark | 15,832 | 2.4 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Glenboig | 3,035 | 2.6 | — | A− | — | D |
| Bellshill | 19,488 | 2.8 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Gartcosh | 3,252 | 3.1 | — | A− | — | C |
| Uddingston | 6,181 | 3.2 | — | A+ | — | C− |
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 £128,900, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 62nd most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Coatbridge 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.
At the 2022 Census, 12% of Coatbridge’s 42,256 residents were 15 to 24 and 17% were 65 or over, against 12% and 19% across Scotland’s towns.
Large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Coatbridge is a locality of 42,256 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.