Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
6,206 residents make their home in this town in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Council tax at Band D comes to £1,691.
Health is a strength: men here can expect to live to 84.4, women to 87.5. Its lowest grade is for walkability — 7% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. It takes 6.9 years of household income in the Renfrewshire council area to buy the median home, at £286,300. Hazards are a real consideration: 2.4% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: life expectancy and incomes, ONS · commuting, Census 2022 · flood risk, SEPA · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Houston has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Houston 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 Houston is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Houston has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 16 buildings inside Houston’s locality, 1 of them in the top category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Houston.
3.5% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, below both Renfrewshire’s towns (7.7%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). A disability affects 17% of people in Houston. Self-reported good health: 87% of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Houston | Renfrewshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 87% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.5% | 7.7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 17% | 25% | 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.
Gryffe High School’s results beat 96% of schools in Scotland like it. Of its 3 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Houston’s two primaries and one secondary have 1,565 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houston Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 503 | – |
| Gryffe High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 954 | A+ |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 36% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
3% of commuters who live in Houston also work there. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 15%, below both Renfrewshire’s towns (37%) and Scotland’s towns (44%). The census counted 36% of workers working mainly from home.
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.
Houston’s listed buildings include Two Monuments Within Houston and Kilellan Church, Category A. Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 16 listed buildings in the town: 1 Category A, 12 Category B. It has one scheduled monument.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
91% of households own their home. Social housing holds 2% of households, lower than both Renfrewshire’s towns (22%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Houston is the second most expensive of the 11 towns in Renfrewshire, at £286,300.
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.
17% are under 15, above both Renfrewshire’s towns (15%) and Scotland’s towns (15%). Retirement age and beyond: nearly a quarter of residents are 65 or older. Houston has a median age of 48.5 years. Aged 15 to 24: 10% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Houston | Renfrewshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 19% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 32% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 19% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 8.7% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.8% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 13% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 44% | 30% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Renfrewshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
16 listed buildings in Houston, 1 of them in the top category.
Fox & Hounds Inn, South Street & Redholm Main Street, Houston Village: Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · St. Fillan's R.C. Church and Attached Presbytery and Former School, Fourwindings, Houston: Photo: Thomas Nugent · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
3 notable people were born in Houston.
Alice Robson: The Farmers' Advocate, Public domain
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 6,206 | — | — | B− | — | A |
| Linwood | 8,408 | 1.5 | — | A | — | D− |
| Bridge of Weir | 4,927 | 1.7 | — | A− | — | B− |
| Kilbarchan | 3,367 | 2 | — | A | — | C+ |
| Johnstone | 16,477 | 2.3 | — | A | — | D− |
| Elderslie | 5,632 | 2.8 | — | A− | — | D |
| Bishopton | 10,048 | 3.1 | — | B− | — | A− |
| Kilmacolm | 3,876 | 4.3 | — | B | — | B |
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.
GCSE results beat 87% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). Houston has 3 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Houston 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
Houston is a locality of 6,206 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.