Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a town of 7,393 residents in Orkney Islands, Scotland. A Band D home pays £1,669 in council tax.
Kirkwall does especially well on cost of living (A): a typical home costs £182,900 and rent runs £816 a month. Fewer journeys need a car (A+): 34% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its lowest grade is for health (C): men here can expect to live to 77.5, women to 83.8. Hazard risk is lower than in most UK towns (A−): 0.1% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
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 Kirkwall has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Kirkwall 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 Kirkwall is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Kirkwall has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 186 buildings inside Kirkwall’s locality, 2 of them in the top category, and 4 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Kirkwall. Best known first.
CathedralSt Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwallin town
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandEarl's Palacein town
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandBishop's Palacein town
MuseumOrkney Museumin town
MuseumOrkney Wireless Museumin town
Historic houseBalfour Castle4.7 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Kirkwall.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 23% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
In 2026, 2.1% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits. 87% of commuters travelled under 5 km, about level with Orkney Islands’ towns (87%) and above Scotland’s towns (44%). At the census, 62% of commuters went by car.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Kirkwall’s two primaries and one secondary have 1,458 pupils between them. Of its 3 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Papdale Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 407 | – |
| Kirkwall Grammar SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 833 | A− |
347 sales in Kirkwall’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £182,900. 57% of households own their home. It is the most expensive of 1 towns of 2,500+ in Orkney Islands.
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.
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 4.5% of the town. Men in Kirkwall can expect to live to 77.5, women to 83.8 (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | Kirkwall | Orkney Islands | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.5% | 4.5% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 24% | 24% | 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.
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 names 186 listed buildings in Kirkwall: 2 Category A, 101 Category B. Of the town’s land, 7% lies in conservation areas, above Scotland’s towns (1%). The town has 4 scheduled monuments.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 are 9.7% of the population. 23% of residents are 65 or over, near Orkney Islands’ towns (23%) and higher than Scotland’s towns (19%). Half of Kirkwall is older than 44, half younger.
52% women, 48% men
About 91 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Kirkwall | Orkney Islands | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.7% | 9.7% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9% | 9% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 12% | 11% |
| Degree level | 29% | 29% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Orkney Islands and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
186 listed buildings in Kirkwall, 2 of them in the top category.
Earl's Palace, Kirkwall: Photo: Van de Beek at nl · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Harbour Street, The Kirkwall Hotel: Photo: Stevekeiretsu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 1 Junction Road, The Orkney Wireless Museum: Photo: Ymblanter · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bignold Park Pavilion: Photo: Kirsty Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0
16 notable people were born in Kirkwall.
Neil Gray: Scottish Government, CC BY 2.0 · Sean Vendy: Griff88, CC BY-SA 4.0 · John Flett: Tempest Anderson, Public domain · Angus Buchanan: Agence Rol, Public domain · George Broadfoot: Broadfoot, William, Public domain · Ann Scott-Moncrieff: Howard Coster, Public domain
That is 10.3 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Broad Street, St Magnus Cathedral, (Cathedral Church of St Magnus the Martyr), (Church of Scotland), Including Boundary Walls, Railings, Graveyard and War Memorial.
Band D council tax in Kirkwall is £1,669 for 2026–27, less than in 93% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
GCSE results beat 79% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Kirkwall has 3 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £182,900, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 191st most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in Orkney Islands, Scotland
Kirkwall is a locality of 7,393 people, in the Orkney Islands 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.