Photo: Mike Pennington · CC BY-SA 2.0How Shetland Islands stacks up
People in Shetland Islands can expect long, healthy lives: healthy life expectancy at birth is 69.5 years, 2nd of 32 Scottish council areas. Alongside school-leaver results that rank 4th of 32 Scottish council areas and little flood risk, it has a reliance on the car (only 13% of commuters walk, cycle or ride) and slow growth. It has no overall grade yet: Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime we can reuse, so there is no Safety grade to weigh.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
Not gradedNot graded yet: no street-level crime for Scotland. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime that we can reuse, so Scottish council areas, like Scottish towns, have no Safety grade yet, and without one no overall grade. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, due at the end of 2026, should bring newer crime figures by small area; we plan to grade Scottish safety on them.
Schools
8th of 90A92/100 Top-tier results in the classroom. Shetland Islands’s school leavers rank 4th highest of 32 Scottish council areas: 76% have five or more awards at National 5 level.
Source: Scottish Government school leaver attainment, 2022/23 to 2024/25: leavers with five or more awards at SCQF level 5 (National 5) or better, every state secondary in the council area. Ranked among Scotland’s council areas.
Shetland Islands has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Cost of living
26th of 98B+74/100 Homes within easier reach than most. Registers of Scotland sales put the typical home at £192,100, or 4.1 years of average household income, against 4.4 across Scotland. Over five years, typical prices have risen 19%.
Typical sale price: £192,100 (266 sales, 31st lowest).
Private rent £739 a month (12th lowest); Band D council tax £1,488 (2nd lowest), before water and sewerage charges. Shown for context.
Source: Registers of Scotland sales September 2025 to August 2026 (median estimated from monthly figures); household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; private rents for the wider Scottish broad rental area; council Band D 2026/27.
Shetland Islands has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Health
5th of 98A+96/100 Long, healthy lives. People here can expect 69.5 years in good health, against 59.2 across Scotland (2nd longest of 32 Scottish council areas).
Life expectancy at birth: 81.7 years, 3rd longest.
Source: National Records of Scotland healthy life expectancy and life expectancy by council area, 2022 to 2024, men and women averaged. A survey-based figure, so ranked among Scotland’s council areas only.
Shetland Islands has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Jobs & income
25th of 98A−75/100 Incomes above most areas. Its claimant rate, 1.2%, ranks lowest, while household income ranks 43rd lowest. Households take in £47,300 a year on average (43rd lowest), and 1.2% of working-age adults claim out-of-work benefits.
Claimant rate: 1.2% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), the lowest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head, 2022, and household size (Scotland has no small-area income figures); DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Shetland Islands has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
96th of 98D−2/100 Among the most car-dependent areas. At the 2022 Census, 13% of people travelling to work went on foot, by bike or by public transport, 12 points below the figure for Scotland.
Worked mainly from home at the 2022 Census: 25% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: Scotland’s Census 2022, method of travel to work by council area; people working mainly from home left out.
Shetland Islands has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Flood risk
8th of 87A92/100 Little to fear from rivers and the sea. Fewer than one in 100 homes in its towns face a real risk of flooding from rivers or the sea (3rd lowest).
Source: SEPA flood maps (rivers and the sea, high and medium likelihood), homes in every town of the council area. SEPA’s bands differ from England’s, so ranked among Scotland’s council areas.
Shetland Islands has one graded town of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Growth
93rd of 98D5/100 Among the slowest-growing areas. NRS estimates put 22,800 people here in 2024, -1.9% on 2011 (6th slowest).
Since the 2021 Census: -0.7%, 2nd slowest.
Source: National Records of Scotland mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Shetland Islands has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Shetland Islands compares to its neighbours
Against its one neighbour, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands comes out ahead on schools, cost of living and jobs and income and falls behind on health, getting about and flood risk.
| Shetland Islands | Orkney Islands | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | No overall grade | No overall grade |
| Safety | Not graded | Not graded |
| Schools | A 924th official | A 895th official |
| Cost of living | B+ 7425th official | B− 5146th official |
| Health | A+ 962nd official | A+ 991st official |
| Jobs & income | A− 7556th official | B 5783rd official |
| Getting about | D− 284th official | B 5848th official |
| Flood risk | A 923rd official | A+ 1001st official |
| Growth | D 593rd official | C 2674th official |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.