Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 10,071 in Scottish Borders, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Galashiels has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A+): the 46th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns: median sale £107,700, 2.4 years of area income; rent £760 a month. Its weakest is hazard risk (D): 10% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
The 3 things Galashiels 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 Galashiels is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Galashiels has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 93 buildings inside Galashiels’s locality, 4 of them in the top category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Galashiels.
54% of households own their home, lower than both Scottish Borders’ towns (58%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). The median, £107,700, rests on 633 sales in Galashiels’s data zones from 2023 to 2025. Social housing holds nearly 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.
Below are two of its 6 schools, each with why it was picked. Some 1,490 pupils attend Galashiels’s five primaries and one secondary.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Peter's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 195 | – |
| Galashiels AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 853 | C− |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 31% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
For 53% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. 29% of commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, above both Scottish Borders’ towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (27%). In 2026, 3.2% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
6.1% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, close to Scottish Borders’ towns (6.4%) and below Scotland’s towns (7.2%). Asked at the census, nearly four in five residents of Galashiels said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2022 | Galashiels | Scottish Borders | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.1% | 6.4% | 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 · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, 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.
Scaled to its population, Galashiels has 92 listed buildings per 10,000 people, below Scottish Borders’ towns (156) but above Scotland’s towns (22). Its listed buildings include Nether Road, Gala Fairydean Football Stadium, Category A. It has one registered historic park or garden.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Just over one in ten residents are 15 to 24, about level with Scotland’s towns (12%) and above Scottish Borders’ towns (10%). The 65-and-over age group makes up nearly a quarter of residents. Ages in Galashiels split evenly at 45.3: half are older, half younger.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Galashiels | Scottish Borders | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 21% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 26% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 20% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 9% | 9.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 29% | 26% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · Scottish Borders and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Galashiels. Best known first.
MuseumOld Gala Housein town
Historic houseAbbotsford House200 m outside town, to the southeast
Abbey or priory · National Trust for ScotlandMelrose Abbey3.8 km outside town, to the east
Garden · National Trust for ScotlandHarmony Garden3.6 km outside town, to the east
MuseumCommendator's House Museum3.7 km outside town, to the east
CastleWhytbank Tower2.6 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
93 listed buildings in Galashiels, 4 of them in the top category.
Scott Crescent, Old Gala House Including Boundary Walls: Photo: Iain Lees · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Selkirk Road Kingsknowes Hotel Including Conservatory: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 57 and 58 Bank Street, The Auld Mill Inn, Public House: Photo: Mainlymazza · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Botany Lane, Former Glasite Chapel: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0
46 notable people were born in Galashiels.
John Collins: User:Herny Wood, Public domain · Danny Galbraith: Mattythewhite, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Richard Tait: Jonesy702, CC BY-SA 3.0
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galashiels | 10,071 | — | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Langlee | 3,530 | 1.4 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Selkirk | 4,669 | 4.8 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Innerleithen | 3,152 | 9.7 | — | 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.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £107,700, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 46th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
That is 3.8 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Nether Road, Gala Fairydean Football Stadium.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Galashiels is £1,619 for 2026–27, less than in 95% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Town in Scottish Borders, Scotland
Galashiels is a locality of 10,071 people, in the Scottish Borders 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.