Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 30,190 people, this large town lies in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Band D council tax is £1,555.
Homes are affordable: homes sell for a median £122,900, about 2.8 times local household income. Walkability is another plus (A−) — nearly a fifth of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Health outcomes fall short of most towns: life expectancy 72.6 for men, 77.9 for women. Natural hazards weigh less here than in most UK towns (A).
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Wishaw without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Wishaw 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 Wishaw is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Wishaw without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 42 buildings inside Wishaw’s locality, 1 of them in the top category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Wishaw.
72% of Wishaw’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, below both North Lanarkshire’s towns (75%) and Scotland’s towns (78%). At the census, a tenth of people here described their health as bad or very bad. A disability affects 30% of people locally.
| Census 2022 | Wishaw | North Lanarkshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 72% | 75% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 10% | 9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 30% | 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.
Of its 11 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Between them, nine primaries and two secondaries teach 3,789 pupils in Wishaw.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wishaw Academy Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 326 | – |
| Coltness High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 968 | C |
34% live in social housing, above North Lanarkshire’s towns (28%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike. Owners make up 55% of households. Private rents average £779 a month across the North Lanarkshire council area.
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; 28% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
For every resident in work, Wishaw has 0.9 jobs. 78% of commuters drove, close to North Lanarkshire’s towns (80%) and above Scotland’s towns (70%). Among 16 to 64s, 3.4% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026. About just over a quarter of its commuters stay in Wishaw 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.
Only one town in North Lanarkshire has more listed buildings for its size than Wishaw. At the top of the list, 1 are Category A and 9 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
The age that splits Wishaw in two is 43.3. Children under 15 make up 16%, close to both North Lanarkshire’s towns (16%) and Scotland’s towns (15%). The share aged 15 to 24 is 12%.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Wishaw | 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 | 9.2% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 21% | 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 Wishaw. Best known first.
CathedralMotherwell Cathedral1.5 km outside town, to the west
CastleDalzell House1.2 km outside town, to the west
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandCadzow Castle (ruin)3.8 km outside town, to the west
Theme parkM&D's Theme Park4.9 km outside town, to the west
MuseumLow Parks Museum4.2 km outside town, to the west
MuseumMotherwell Heritage Centre1.9 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
68 notable people were born in Wishaw.
John Higgins: Benwmbc at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Chris Totten: Benutzer:Bill da Flute, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Paul Quinn: Jon Candy, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Jim Graham: dbking, CC BY 2.0 · John Cleland: Cs-wolves, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wishaw | 30,190 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Cleland | 3,043 | 1.8 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Newmains | 5,364 | 2 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Carfin | 4,427 | 2.3 | — | A | — | D |
| Law | 3,293 | 2.5 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Motherwell | 33,021 | 2.7 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Newarthill | 6,956 | 2.8 | — | A | — | D− |
| New Stevenston | 6,298 | 3.2 | — | 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 £122,900, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 54th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Wishaw 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
Wishaw is a locality of 30,190 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.