Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The large town has 31,185 residents and lies in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Housing is within reach: the median home sold for £149,000, 3.2 years of area income. Its weakest is health (D−): life expectancy is 75.6 for men and 79.1 for women. Hazard risk is higher than most: 3.3% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Council tax at Band D comes to £1,468.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Rutherglen has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no 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 Rutherglen is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Rutherglen has no Safety Grade, because Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, and so no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Rutherglen does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 33 buildings inside Rutherglen’s locality, 3 of them in the top category.
The archive holds 2 old photos and postcards going back to 1868 and a map from 1923.
33 listed buildings in Rutherglen, 3 of them in the top category.
131, 139 Main Street, Rutherglen, District Council Offices (Originally Town Hall): Photo: BrainiacBlink · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 152, 154 Main Street, Rutherglen, Kirkwood Street, St Columbkillie's Rc Church and Presbytery: Photo: Stephen Sweeney · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mill Street, Overtoun Park, Bandstand: Photo: BrainiacBlink · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Maccallum Avenue, Rutherglen, Stonelaw High School, Gallowflat Annexe (East Block): Photo: Crowsus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Rutherglen.
Private renters make up 10% of households, near South Lanarkshire’s towns (10%) and lower than Scotland’s towns (13%). Only one of the 16 towns in South Lanarkshire costs less to buy into than Rutherglen, whose median sale is £149,000. A quarter of households live in social housing.
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.
Between them, ten primaries and one secondary teach 3,714 pupils in Rutherglen. Two of its 11 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calderwood Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 426 | – |
| Stonelaw High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,322 | B |
At the census, 28% of people here had a disability, above South Lanarkshire’s towns (25%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike. 9.3% of residents report bad or very bad health. Asked at the census, nearly three quarters of residents of Rutherglen said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2022 | Rutherglen | South Lanarkshire | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.3% | 7.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 28% | 25% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 33% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
For every resident in work, Rutherglen has 0.6 jobs. 29% of commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, above both South Lanarkshire’s towns (18%) and Scotland’s towns (27%). Among 16 to 64s, 3.5% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026. Of the commuters living here, 10% work in the town itself.
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.
At the top of the list, 3 are Category A and 19 Category B. Rutherglen’s listed buildings include Main Street, Rutherglen Tower and Fragments of Old Church, Category A.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
23% of residents are 65 or over, above both South Lanarkshire’s towns (20%) and Scotland’s towns (19%). Residents of Rutherglen have a median age of 46.1. Under 15: 14% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Rutherglen | South Lanarkshire | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 16% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 9.1% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 23% | 20% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 18% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8% | 8.4% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 9.5% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 28% | 28% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · South Lanarkshire and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Rutherglen. Best known first.
CathedralGlasgow Cathedral2.6 km outside town, to the north
MuseumGlasgow School of Art3.6 km outside town, to the northwest
Big drawArt galleryGallery of Modern Art2.7 km outside town, to the northwest · 596K visitors a year
CathedralSt Andrew's Cathedral2.3 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumPeople's Palace1.3 km outside town, to the northwest · 290K visitors a year
MuseumGlasgow Science Centre4.5 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
95 notable people were born in Rutherglen.
Robbie Coltrane: clogdancer, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Aiden McGeady: Amarhgil, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kenny McLean: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · William Gemmell Cochran: Barry Eagel, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lee Gibson: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Richard Rankin: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Rutherglen is a locality of 31,185 people, in the South Lanarkshire 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 →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rutherglen | 31,185 | — | — | A+ | — | D− |
| Cambuslang | 33,250 | 2.1 | — | A | — | D |
| Netherlee | 4,493 | 2.7 | — | B+ | — | A+ |
| Stamperland | 3,497 | 3 | — | A | — | B+ |
| Glasgow | 617,904 | 3.5 | — | B− | — | D− |
| Giffnock | 11,963 | 3.5 | — | B+ | — | B+ |
| Busby | 3,351 | 3.5 | — | A | — | C |
| Clarkston | 9,486 | 3.7 | — | B+ | — | A+ |
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.
Band D council tax in Rutherglen is £1,468 for 2026–27, less than in 99% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £149,000, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 70th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
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.