Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 3,152 in Scottish Borders, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Innerleithen 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 112th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns: median sale £191,000, 4.3 years of area income; rent £760 a month. Its weakest is hazard risk (D−): 32% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
The 3 things Innerleithen 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 Innerleithen is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Innerleithen has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 26 buildings inside Innerleithen’s locality, 5 of them in the second category.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1907.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Innerleithen.
Innerleithen sits below both Scottish Borders’ towns (12%) and Scotland’s towns (13%) on this measure. Owners make up 67% of households. Only one of the 11 towns in Scottish Borders costs more to buy into than Innerleithen, whose median sale is £191,000.
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL
Its one school is below. The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Ronan's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 201 | – |
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.
That puts Innerleithen below both Scottish Borders’ towns (50%) and Scotland’s towns (44%). 22% of commuters went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport at the census.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
On this, Innerleithen is below both Scottish Borders’ towns (6.4%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy and early deaths.
| Census 2022 | Innerleithen | Scottish Borders | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.3% | 6.4% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 22% | 25% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
In the comparison, Innerleithen comes above both Scottish Borders’ towns (8%) and Scotland’s towns (1%). Innerleithen has 82 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents. Innerleithen has 26 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 0 Category A, 5 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
For Innerleithen, that is below both Scottish Borders’ towns (10%) and Scotland’s towns (12%). People 65 and over make up 26% of the town. Innerleithen has a median age of 50.4.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 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.
| Innerleithen | Scottish Borders | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.1% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 21% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 32% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 26% | 26% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 20% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.8% | 9.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 34% | 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 Innerleithen. Best known first.
Museum · National Trust for ScotlandRobert Smail's Printing Worksin town
CastleTraquair House Maze500 m outside town, to the south
CastleHorsburgh Castle4.7 km outside town, to the northwest
CastleGlen House4.2 km outside town, to the southwest
GardenKailzie Gardens4.8 km outside town, to the west
CastleCardrona Tower2.7 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
26 listed buildings in Innerleithen.
5, 7, 9 and 11 High Street, Robert Smail's Printing Works, Including Printing Works, Courtyard and Mill Lade: Photo: Dave souza · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Leithen Road, Municipal Buildings and Memorial Hall: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Innerleithen Parish Church, Leithen Road, Innerleithen Including Boundary Walls, Gates and Gatepiers: Photo: WeeHolly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Peebles Road, Alpinebikes, Former Congregational Chapel: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0
5 notable people were born in Innerleithen.
Harold Tennant: Bain News Service,, publisher., 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Innerleithen | 3,152 | — | — | A+ | — | C+ |
| Peebles | 9,117 | 5.6 | — | A | — | B |
| Galashiels | 10,071 | 9.7 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Selkirk | 4,669 | 9.9 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Langlee | 3,530 | 11 | — | 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.
That is 3.4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size.
Band D council tax in Innerleithen 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.
GCSE results beat 82% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
Town in Scottish Borders, Scotland
Innerleithen is a locality of 3,152 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.