Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,691 in council tax. Population 3,367: a town in Renfrewshire, Scotland.
Prices are modest for what you get: the median home sold for £158,800, 3.8 years of area income. Its schools beat most (A−): school leavers’ results beat 80% of Scottish towns. The weak point is health (C+) — life expectancy is 78.7 for men and 85 for women. Natural hazards weigh more here: 2.5% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Kilbarchan without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Kilbarchan 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 Kilbarchan is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Kilbarchan without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 66 buildings inside Kilbarchan’s locality, 2 of them in the top category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Kilbarchan.
Renting privately is how 8% of households live. Social housing holds 11% of households, below both Renfrewshire’s towns (22%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). 178 sales in Kilbarchan’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £158,800.
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 is its only school. Its one primary school teaches 189 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kilbarchan Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 189 | – |
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 6.6% of the town. At the census, a quarter of people here had a disability, in line with Renfrewshire’s towns (25%) and Scotland’s towns (24%).
| Census 2022 | Kilbarchan | Renfrewshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.6% | 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 · 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Category B covers 30 of them, Category A 2. Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 66 listed buildings in Kilbarchan: 2 Category A, 30 Category B. Conservation areas cover 24% of the town’s land, higher than both Renfrewshire’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%).
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; 33% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
83% of commuters drove to work at the census. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 22%, below both Renfrewshire’s towns (37%) and Scotland’s towns (44%). Also worth knowing: among 16 to 64s, 2% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Kilbarchan has a median age of 51.6 years. One measure of family life: 12% of residents are under 15; what’s more, people aged 15 to 24 make up nearly a tenth of the town, below both Renfrewshire’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (12%). Among adults, 38% have a degree.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Kilbarchan | Renfrewshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 12% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.2% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 28% | 19% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9.8% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 38% | 30% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Renfrewshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
66 listed buildings in Kilbarchan, 2 of them in the top category.
Kilbarchan Steeple and Steeple Buildings, Steeple Square, Kilbarchan: Photo: wfmillar · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 26 High Barholm, (Little Acre Forge): Photo: Mark S · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Former Parish Church, (Now Hall of West Parish Church) Kilbarchan (Including Surrounding Churchyard): Photo: Richard Sutcliffe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Kilbarchan Old Parish Church of Scotland, Church Street: Photo: Mark S · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
11 notable people were born in Kilbarchan.
George Douglas: Samuel Alexander Walker, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilbarchan | 3,367 | — | — | A | — | C+ |
| Johnstone | 16,477 | 1.2 | — | A | — | D− |
| Bridge of Weir | 4,927 | 1.8 | — | A− | — | B− |
| Houston | 6,206 | 2 | — | B− | — | A |
| Linwood | 8,408 | 2 | — | A | — | D− |
| Elderslie | 5,632 | 2.3 | — | A− | — | D |
| Lochwinnoch | 2,769 | 4 | — | A− | — | B− |
| Paisley | 79,351 | 4.6 | — | 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.
That is 8 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Kilbarchan Steeple and Steeple Buildings, Steeple Square, Kilbarchan.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £158,800, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 178th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
GCSE results beat 80% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in Renfrewshire, Scotland
Kilbarchan is a locality of 3,367 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.