Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Council tax at Band D comes to £1,691. Home to 5,632 people, this town lies in Renfrewshire, Scotland.
Elderslie’s strongest is cost of living: homes sell for a median £205,400, about 4.9 times local household income. The weak point is health: life expectancy is 76 for men and 80.5 for women. Elsewhere it is close to typical: B− for schools and B− for walkability. Hazards are a real consideration: 1.8% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · commuting, Census 2022 · flood risk, SEPA. Elderslie has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Elderslie 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 Elderslie is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Elderslie has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 4 buildings inside Elderslie’s locality, 1 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Elderslie.
6.9% of residents report bad or very bad health. At the census, 79% of people in Elderslie called their health good or very good, above Renfrewshire’s towns (78%) and close to Scotland’s towns (78%).
| Census 2022 | Elderslie | Renfrewshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.9% | 7.7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 25% | 25% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
The one school in town appears below. Its one primary school teaches 361 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wallace Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 361 | – |
The social rented sector houses 14% of households. Owners make up 78% of households, higher than both Renfrewshire’s towns (65%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). Behind the median of £205,400: 277 sales in Elderslie’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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Elderslie has 7 listed buildings per 10,000 residents.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
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.
31% of commuters travelled under 5 km, below both Renfrewshire’s towns (37%) and Scotland’s towns (44%). By car: that was how just over four in five commuters travelled at the census. The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 1.6%.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Residents of Elderslie have a median age of 48.1. 24% of residents are 65 or over. Degrees are held by a third of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Elderslie | Renfrewshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.2% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 24% | 19% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 33% | 30% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Renfrewshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Elderslie. Best known first.
CathedralSt Mirin's Cathedral3.1 km outside town, to the east
CastleJohnstone Castle500 m outside town, to the west
MuseumPaisley Museum and Art Galleries2.2 km outside town, to the northeastZooZooNature Corner4.5 km outside town, to the eastArt galleryArt galleryPicture framers and Art Gallery2.5 km outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
13 notable people were born in Elderslie.
Richard Madden: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Callum Hawkins: Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 br · Andrew P. MacKenzie: Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Shereen Nanjiani: Howard Lake from Colchester, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elderslie | 5,632 | — | — | A− | — | D |
| Johnstone | 16,477 | 1.2 | — | A | — | D− |
| Linwood | 8,408 | 1.4 | — | A | — | D− |
| Paisley | 79,351 | 2.3 | — | A | — | D− |
| Kilbarchan | 3,367 | 2.3 | — | A | — | C+ |
| Houston | 6,206 | 2.8 | — | B− | — | A |
| Bridge of Weir | 4,927 | 3.9 | — | A− | — | B− |
| Neilston | 5,459 | 4.1 | — | 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.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £205,400, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 224th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Band D council tax in Elderslie is £1,691 for 2026–27, less than in 90% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Town in Renfrewshire, Scotland
Elderslie is a locality of 5,632 people, in the Renfrewshire 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.