Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,628 in council tax. 7,249 people live in this town in West Lothian, Scotland.
School results are strong (A−): school leavers’ results beat 79% of Scottish towns. Homes sell for a median £326,300, about 6.8 years of what households in the West Lothian council area earn. Residents’ health trails most towns: life expectancy is 80.6 for men and 83.2 for women. Natural hazards are less of a worry than in most UK towns (A).
Figures: life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, SEPA. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, East Calder has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
The thing East Calder 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 East Calder is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, East Calder has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 5 buildings inside East Calder’s locality, 4 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in East Calder.
One of its 3 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. Some 1,140 pupils attend East Calder’s three primaries.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calderwood Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 617 | – |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 36% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
36% of workers worked mainly from home, higher than both West Lothian’s towns (33%) and Scotland’s towns (31%). The car carried just over four in five commuters at the census. Work in town: 5% of resident commuters. Also worth knowing: for 22% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
At the census, 4.7% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, below both West Lothian’s towns (7%) and Scotland’s towns (7.2%). Nearly a fifth of residents in East Calder live with a disability.
| Census 2022 | East Calder | West Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.7% | 7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 19% | 24% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 5 listed buildings in East Calder: 4 Category B. Scaled to its population, that is 7 listed buildings for every 10,000 people here.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Renting privately is how 6% of households live. 11% live in social housing, lower than both West Lothian’s towns (25%) and Scotland’s towns (24%). East Calder is the most expensive of the 13 towns in West Lothian: its median sale is £326,300.
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.
The share aged 15 to 24 is 8.2%. Residents of East Calder have a median age of 38.9. 15% of residents have reached 65. Degrees are held by 35% of adults, above West Lothian’s towns (28%) and Scotland’s towns (32%) alike.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| East Calder | West Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 18% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.2% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 31% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 15% | 17% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 16% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.5% | 7.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 35% | 28% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · West Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near East Calder. Best known first.
Art galleryJupiter Artland700 m outside town, to the northeast
Theme parkLost Shore Surf Resort2.8 km outside town, to the northeastHeritage railwayHeritage railwayAlmond Valley Light Railway4.7 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumMuseum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry4.6 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumThe Wee Museum of Memory2.2 km outside town, to the southwestAttractionAttractionMad Max Adventures2.5 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Calder | 7,249 | — | — | B | — | C+ |
| Mid Calder | 3,217 | 1.3 | — | A | — | B |
| Livingston | 55,798 | 2.6 | — | A | — | D |
| Broxburn | 15,414 | 2.7 | — | A | — | D |
| Winchburgh | 4,290 | 4.3 | — | B+ | — | C+ |
| Polbeth | 2,595 | 4.4 | — | A | — | D− |
| Kirkliston | 5,607 | 4.7 | — | B− | — | B− |
| West Calder | 3,405 | 5.4 | — | A | — | D |
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 East Calder is £1,628 for 2026–27, less than in 94% 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 79% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). East Calder has 3 state schools; places are handled by the local council.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in West Lothian, Scotland
East Calder is a locality of 7,249 people, in the West Lothian 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.