Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Band D council tax is £1,628. With 12,522 residents, it is a town in West Lothian, Scotland.
Schools are its strong suit — school leavers’ results beat 97% of Scottish towns. It also does well on cost of living (A) — a typical home costs £242,400 and rent runs £908 a month. Its other grades sit near the middle: B− for health and C+ for hazard risk. Its listed buildings number 159, with 9 at Category A.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Linlithgow without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
The 3 things Linlithgow 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 Linlithgow is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland publishes no street-level crime, which leaves Linlithgow without a Safety Grade or an overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 159 buildings inside Linlithgow’s locality, 9 of them in the top category, and 2 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds a map from c. 1948.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Linlithgow. Best known first.
PalaceLinlithgow Palacein town
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandBlackness Castle4.3 km outside town, to the northeast
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandKinneil House2.5 km outside town, to the northwest
Historic house · National Trust for ScotlandHouse of the Binns3 km outside town, to the east
MuseumMuseum of Scottish Railways3.6 km outside town, to the north
CastleAlmond Castle2.6 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Linlithgow.
Linlithgow Academy’s results beat nearly every one of schools in Scotland like it. Between them, five primaries and one secondary teach 2,283 pupils in the town. Of its 7 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linlithgow Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 340 | – |
| Linlithgow AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,223 | A+ |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 41% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: just over two in five workers, above West Lothian’s towns (33%) and Scotland’s towns (31%) alike. 17% of commuters who live in Linlithgow also work there. This West Lothian town counts 0.8 jobs per working resident.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
The private rented sector houses one in ten households. 615 sales in Linlithgow’s data zones from 2023 to 2025 make up the median of £242,400. It is the 3rd most expensive of 13 towns of 2,500+ in West Lothian.
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 heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Linlithgow has more listed buildings than any other town in West Lothian. Its listed buildings include High Street, St Michael's Well, Category A. At the top of the list, 9 are Category A and 75 Category B.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Self-reported good health: 84% of Linlithgow’s residents. 20% of residents have a disability, below West Lothian’s towns (24%) and Scotland’s towns (24%) alike.
| Census 2022 | Linlithgow | West Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.4% | 7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 20% | 24% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Retirement age and beyond: 24% of residents are 65 or older. Young adults of 15 to 24 are 8.9% of residents, below both West Lothian’s towns (11%) and Scotland’s towns (12%). One measure of family life: 16% of residents are under 15. Linlithgow has a median age of 48.3.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 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.
| Linlithgow | West Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 18% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 8.9% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 31% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 24% | 17% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 8.8% | 16% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.1% | 7.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 51% | 28% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · West Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
159 listed buildings in Linlithgow, 9 of them in the top category.
Linlithgow Palace, Peel and Royal Park: Photo: Alex Sanz · CC BY 2.0 · The Cross and Kirkgate, Burgh Halls (Former Town House and Old County Hall): Photo: Ammienoot · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Braehead, Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal Bridge 46: Photo: Mat Fascione · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Union Road, Railway Wall (To N of Track) Including Rail Bridge to E: Photo: kim traynor · CC BY-SA 2.0
28 notable people were born in Linlithgow.
Mary, Queen of Scots: Unidentified painter, Public domain · James V of Scotland: Corneille de Lyon, Public domain · Colin Stein: Jack de Nijs for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Scott Banks: Bradford City AFC, CC BY 3.0 · Cameron Mason: MFonzatti, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linlithgow | 12,522 | — | — | A | — | B− |
| Bo'ness | 14,875 | 2.4 | — | A− | — | D |
| Maddiston | 3,835 | 3.6 | — | B | — | C− |
| Polmont | 5,044 | 4.1 | — | A− | — | C+ |
| Brightons | 4,048 | 4.5 | — | B+ | — | C+ |
| Grangemouth | 16,028 | 5 | — | A | — | D− |
| Redding | 3,812 | 5.4 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Winchburgh | 4,290 | 5.4 | — | B+ | — | 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.
GCSE results beat 97% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
That is 5.2 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include High Street, St Michael's Well. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Band D council tax in Linlithgow 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.
Town in West Lothian, Scotland
Linlithgow is a locality of 12,522 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.