Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 4,669 in Scottish Borders, Scotland.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Selkirk 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 £126,400, 2.9 years of area income; rent £760 a month. Its weakest is hazard risk (D): 5.3% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
The 3 things Selkirk 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 Selkirk is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Selkirk has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 118 buildings inside Selkirk’s locality, 3 of them in the top category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Selkirk.
Our estimate of the median sale is £126K, below both Scottish Borders’ towns (£164K) and Scotland’s towns (£174K). 21% of households live in social housing.
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL
Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The grade uses the secondaries its children go to; Scotland publishes no primary results by school.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowepark Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 205 | – |
| Selkirk High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 395 | B− |
Women here live to 80 on average and men to 77.6 (2020–24). 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 | Selkirk | Scottish Borders | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.2% | 6.4% | 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
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.
For Selkirk, that is below both Scottish Borders’ towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (27%). 31% of commuters travelled under 5 km to work.
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.
Selkirk sits above both Scottish Borders’ towns (131) and Scotland’s towns (22) on this measure. Selkirk’s listed buildings include Dunsdale Road, Ettrick Mill, Category A. Selkirk has 118 listed buildings on Historic Environment Scotland’s list: 3 Category A, 32 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
That puts Selkirk above both Scottish Borders’ towns (26%) and Scotland’s towns (19%). Young adults of 15 to 24 are 8.4% of the population. Selkirk has a median age of 51.7.
53% women, 47% men
About 90 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.
| Selkirk | Scottish Borders | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 13% | 15% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.4% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 21% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 30% | 26% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 20% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 11% | 9.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 28% | 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 Selkirk. Best known first.
MuseumHalliwell's House Museum & Robson Galleryin town
MuseumSir Walter Scottʼs Courtroomin town
Historic houseBowhill House2.9 km outside town, to the west
CastleAikwood Tower4.1 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleNewark Castle3.5 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
118 listed buildings in Selkirk, 3 of them in the top category.
Selkirk Sheriff Court and Justice Of The Peace Court, including gatepiers, railings and boundary walls, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk: Photo: kim traynor · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Kirk Wynd, Auld Kirkyard, Old Parish Kirk, Boundary Wall, Railings, Gates and Gateway: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · High Street, Council Buildings: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 14 Shawpark Road, Dandswall Lodge, Stable and Coach Block with Court, Gatepiers and Railings: Photo: Victuallers · 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selkirk | 4,669 | — | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Galashiels | 10,071 | 4.8 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Langlee | 3,530 | 5 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Burnfoot | 2,797 | 8.3 | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Hawick | 10,715 | 8.8 | — | A+ | — | C− |
| Innerleithen | 3,152 | 9.9 | — | 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 £126,400, 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 10.4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Dunsdale Road, Ettrick Mill. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Selkirk 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
Selkirk is a locality of 4,669 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.