Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A large town of 50,557 in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Cumbernauld has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A+): the 58th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns: median sale £126,600, 2.9 years of area income; rent £779 a month. Its weakest is health (D): life expectancy 76.9 for men, 80.6 for women.
The 3 things Cumbernauld 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 Cumbernauld is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Cumbernauld has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 34 buildings inside Cumbernauld’s locality, 2 of them in the top category, and 5 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Cumbernauld. Best known first.
FortAntonine Wall2.5 km outside town, to the northwest
CastleCastlecary Castle100 m outside town, to the northeast
CastleBedlay Castle2.9 km outside town, to the southwestMuseumMuseumColzium Museum2.7 km outside town, to the northwestMuseumMuseumKilsyth Museum2.6 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Cumbernauld.
Social housing holds 19% of households. 10% rent privately, between North Lanarkshire’s towns (9%) and Scotland’s towns (13%). Also worth knowing: the median, £126,600, rests on 2,292 sales in Cumbernauld’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 are three of its 23 schools, each with why it was picked. Some 7,996 pupils attend Cumbernauld’s 16 primaries and four secondaries.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cumbernauld Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 435 | – |
| Greenfaulds High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,312 | B+ |
| Our Lady's High School - CumbernauldTop results in townSecondary | Secondary | 876 | A− |
8% of residents report bad or very bad health. At the census, 76% of people in Cumbernauld called their health good or very good, near North Lanarkshire’s towns (75%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (78%). A disability affects just over a quarter of people here.
| Census 2022 | Cumbernauld | North Lanarkshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 75% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8% | 9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 26% | 26% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 32% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Driving is how 78% of commuters got to work at the census. 31% of commuters travelled under 5 km, below North Lanarkshire’s towns (34%) and Scotland’s towns (44%) alike. For every resident in work, Cumbernauld has 0.9 jobs. About a third of its commuters stay in Cumbernauld for 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.
Cumbernauld’s listed buildings include Cumbernauld House, Category A. The national list protects 5 ancient monuments in the town. For its size, Cumbernauld has 7 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than North Lanarkshire’s towns (3) yet lower than Scotland’s towns (22).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
People 65 and over make up 20% of the town, about level with Scotland’s towns (19%) and above North Lanarkshire’s towns (18%). Ages in Cumbernauld split evenly at 43.8: half are older, half younger. Among adults, 25% have a degree.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Cumbernauld | North Lanarkshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 20% | 18% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 21% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.4% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 25% | 23% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · North Lanarkshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
34 listed buildings in Cumbernauld, 2 of them in the top category.
Kyle Road, Kildrum, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church and Presbytery: Photo: David Bremner · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Carrickstone,Roman altar,400m W of: Photo: Horep · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Castlecary, Red Burn Viaduct: Photo: Alpin Stewart · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Former Cumbernauld Cottage Theatre (single-storey cottage row) excluding all later additions to rear, Braehead Road, Cumbernauld: Photo: Euan Nelson · CC BY-SA 2.0
11 notable people were born in Cumbernauld.
Clementina Maude, Viscountess Hawarden: Clementina Hawarden, Public domain · Paula Sage: Photograph by Alan Wylie., CC BY 3.0 · Neil Primrose: Chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gregg McClymont: MekQuarrie, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumbernauld | 50,557 | — | — | A+ | — | D |
| Kilsyth | 10,958 | 3.1 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Moodiesburn | 6,706 | 4.2 | — | A+ | — | D |
| Glenboig | 3,035 | 4.4 | — | A− | — | D |
| Plains | 3,122 | 5.2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Gartcosh | 3,252 | 5.4 | — | A− | — | C |
| Chryston | 3,257 | 5.4 | — | B | — | C− |
| Bonnybridge | 5,085 | 5.6 | — | 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 £126,600, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 58th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Cumbernauld 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
Cumbernauld is a locality of 50,557 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.