Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Population 6,317: a town in South Ayrshire, Scotland.
Prices are modest for what you get (A+): the median home sold for £92,500, 2.1 years of area income. Walkability is a strength too: on the way to work, 24% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Health is its weak spot — life expectancy 73 for men, 79.2 for women. Hazard risk is higher than most: 3.3% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2022 · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Girvan without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Girvan is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Girvan without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Girvan does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 58 buildings inside Girvan’s locality, 20 of them in the second category, and 1 scheduled monument.
The archive holds 3 old photos and postcards going back to 1890.
58 listed buildings in Girvan.
Girvan Station Including Signal Box: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Knockcushan Street Town Hall Tower: Photo: Elliott Simpson · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Montgomerie Street, Queens Hotel: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Methodist Church, Dalrymple Street: Photo: Billy McCrorie · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Girvan.
26% live in social housing, higher than both South Ayrshire’s towns (19%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). Girvan is the second cheapest of the 6 towns in South Ayrshire, at £92,500. Private tenants account for nearly one in ten 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.
Some 905 pupils attend Girvan’s two primaries and one secondary. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Girvan Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 301 | – |
| Girvan AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 501 | B− |
70% of Girvan’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, below South Ayrshire’s towns (76%) and Scotland’s towns (78%) alike. Its share in bad or very bad health, 9.8%, is the highest of the 6 towns in South Ayrshire. Disability touches nearly a third of the town’s population.
| Census 2022 | Girvan | South Ayrshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 70% | 76% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.8% | 7.7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 32% | 27% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 23% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
The car carried 73% of commuters at the census. 23% of workers worked mainly from home, below South Ayrshire’s towns (29%) and Scotland’s towns (31%) alike. The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 3.9%. About a third of its commuters stay in Girvan for 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.
Scaled to its population, that is 92 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in Girvan. Category B covers 20 of them. Also worth knowing: of the town’s land, 8% lies in conservation areas, above both South Ayrshire’s towns (7%) and Scotland’s towns (1%).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 make up 10% of the town. 27% of residents are 65 or over, about level with South Ayrshire’s towns (27%) and above Scotland’s towns (19%). Half of Girvan is older than 50.2, half younger.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 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.
| Girvan | South Ayrshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 14% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 9.7% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 20% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 27% | 27% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 25% | 18% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.6% | 8% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 19% | 31% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · South Ayrshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
21 notable people were born in Girvan.
Arthur Dobbs: Scan by NYPL, Public domain · Cathcart Wason: Wrigglesworth & Binns of Wellington, Public domain · Eilish McSorley: Anders Henrikson, CC BY 2.0 · Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton: Royal Navy official photographer, Ware, C J (Lt), Public domain
Town in South Ayrshire, Scotland
Girvan is a locality of 6,317 people, in the South Ayrshire 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
The nearest towns and villages, from National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities. See them on the map →
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £92,500, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
That is 3.8 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
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.