Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Band D council tax is £1,691. A large town in Renfrewshire, Scotland, home to 79,351 people.
Buying a home costs less than in most towns: homes sell for a median £125,500, about 3 times local household income. It is strong on walkability as well — a quarter of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Health lags: men here can expect to live to 74.5, women to 79.8. Hazard risk is weaker too (C−): 3.7% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Paisley has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
The 3 things Paisley 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 Paisley is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Paisley has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 273 buildings inside Paisley’s locality, 24 of them in the top category, and 2 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 2 old photos and postcards going back to 1890 and a map from c. 1948.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Paisley. Best known first.
CathedralSt Mirin's Cathedralin town
MuseumPaisley Museum and Art Galleriesin town
Big drawMuseumRiverside Museum4.4 km outside town, to the east · 1.1M visitors a year (2015)
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandCrookston Castle1.1 km outside town, to the east
Historic house · National Trust for ScotlandPollok House3.5 km outside town, to the east
MuseumGlasgow Science Centre4.8 km outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Paisley.
At the census, nearly one in ten residents said their health was bad or very bad, above both Renfrewshire’s towns (7.7%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). A disability affects just over a quarter of people in Paisley. Self-reported good health: 76% of the town’s residents.
| Census 2022 | Paisley | Renfrewshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.5% | 7.7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 26% | 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.
Of its 24 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Between them, 19 primaries and four secondaries teach 9,390 pupils in Paisley.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 389 | – |
| St Andrew's AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,490 | B− |
Private renters make up 14% of households. Owners make up 58% of households, below Renfrewshire’s towns (65%) and close to Scotland’s towns (60%). Council and housing-body homes hold just over a quarter of households.
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; 30% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
The car took 72% of commuters, lower than Renfrewshire’s towns (76%) yet higher than Scotland’s towns (70%). About 34% of its commuters stay in Paisley for work. This Renfrewshire town counts 1.2 jobs per working resident.
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.
Paisley’s listed buildings include the Abbey Close Place of Paisley, Category A. Of the town’s land, 3% lies in conservation areas, above both Renfrewshire’s towns (0%) and Scotland’s towns (1%). Category B covers 174 of them, Category A 24.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Ages in Paisley split evenly at 42.3: half are older, half younger. Graduates make up 30% of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Paisley | Renfrewshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 18% | 19% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.8% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 30% | 30% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Renfrewshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
273 listed buildings in Paisley, 24 of them in the top category.
Abbey Close, Paisley Abbey: Photo: Colin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 49 Oakshaw Street Coats Observatory: Photo: Thomas Nugent · CC BY-SA 2.0 · High Street, Museum, Art Gallery and Library: Photo: Thomas Nugent · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Anchor Mills, Former No 1 Embroidery Mill: Photo: Beachmilk · CC BY-SA 4.0
373 notable people were born in Paisley.
Gerard Butler: Gordon Correll, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Gerry Rafferty: Eddie Mallin, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Steven Moffat: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Paolo Nutini: Ueli Frey, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paisley | 79,351 | — | — | A | — | D− |
| Elderslie | 5,632 | 2.3 | — | A− | — | D |
| Renfrew | 23,812 | 2.8 | — | A | — | D |
| Linwood | 8,408 | 3 | — | A | — | D− |
| Barrhead | 17,608 | 3 | — | A | — | D |
| Johnstone | 16,477 | 3.4 | — | A | — | D− |
| Neilston | 5,459 | 3.8 | — | A | — | C+ |
| Erskine | 14,857 | 4.4 | — | 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.
On cost of living it is the 152nd most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Paisley 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.
Large town in Renfrewshire, Scotland
Paisley is a locality of 79,351 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.