Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,628 in council tax. 55,798 people call this large town in West Lothian, Scotland home.
Homes are affordable: homes sell for a median £204,100, about 4.3 times local household income. It is strong on schools as well: school leavers’ results beat 88% of Scottish towns. Health lags: life expectancy is 76.8 for men and 80.9 for women. Natural hazards weigh less here than in most UK towns: 0.1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · flood risk, SEPA. Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Livingston has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Livingston is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Without street-level crime figures from Police Scotland, Livingston has no Safety Grade, and so no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Livingston does most differently from other towns.
Historic Environment Scotland lists 29 buildings inside Livingston’s locality, 19 of them in the second category.
Explore the history →29 listed buildings in Livingston.
St Andrews Roman Catholic Church Including Entrance Wall, 126 Victoria Street, Craigshill, Livingston: Photo: Neilmacleanok · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Livingston Inn: Photo: Anne Burgess · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Howden Bridge: Photo: Alasdair MacNeill · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Livingston 'Livi' Skatepark, Almondside, Livingston: Photo: Mick Garratt · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Livingston.
Private renters make up 10% of households. Owners make up 62% of households, near both West Lothian’s towns (63%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). The social rented sector houses just over a quarter of 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.
Below are three of its 25 schools, each with why it was picked. St Margaret's Academy’s results beat 94% of schools in Scotland like it. Livingston’s 18 primaries and four secondaries have 8,587 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Williamston Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 409 | – |
| The James Young High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,177 | A− |
| St Margaret's AcademyTop results in townSecondary | Secondary | 1,126 | A |
78% of Livingston’s residents described their health as good or very good in 2022, against 79% across West Lothian’s towns. At the census, 24% of people here had a disability, near both West Lothian’s towns (24%) and Scotland’s towns (24%).
| Census 2022 | Livingston | West Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.1% | 7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 24% | 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.
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 34% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
The car took 75% of commuters, lower than West Lothian’s towns (78%) yet higher than Scotland’s towns (70%). There are 1.5 jobs in Livingston for each resident in work. Work in town: 47% of resident commuters.
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.
Category B covers 19 of them. For its size, Livingston has 5 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, below both West Lothian’s towns (7) and Scotland’s towns (22).
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Children under 15 count for 18% of the people here. Half of Livingston is older than 41.2, half younger. Degrees are held by 27% of adults, close to West Lothian’s towns (28%) and below Scotland’s towns (32%).
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Livingston | West Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 18% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 16% | 17% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 16% | 16% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.6% | 7.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 12% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 27% | 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 Livingston. Best known first.
CastleNiddry Castle4.8 km outside town, to the northeast
Art galleryJupiter Artland3.8 km outside town, to the eastMuseumMuseumMuseum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industryin townMuseumMuseumAlmond Valley Heritage Centrein townMuseumMuseumThe Wee Museum of Memoryin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
44 notable people were born in Livingston.
Scott Arfield: Steindy 23:15, 6 September 2009 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Danny Wilson: md.faisalzaman, CC BY 2.0 · Liam Henderson: Olga Shcherbytska, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Elise Christie: Voltmetro, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Peter Wright: DARTS NOW, CC BY 3.0 · Tommy Walker: Harry Sagers / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
Large town in West Lothian, Scotland
Livingston is a locality of 55,798 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
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Livingston | 55,798 | — | — | A | — | D |
| Mid Calder | 3,217 | 1.5 | — | A | — | B |
| Polbeth | 2,595 | 2.5 | — | A | — | D− |
| East Calder | 7,249 | 2.6 | — | B | — | C+ |
| Broxburn | 15,414 | 3 | — | A | — | D |
| West Calder | 3,405 | 3.5 | — | A | — | D |
| Blackburn | 5,263 | 4.1 | — | A | — | D− |
| Bathgate | 22,229 | 4.4 | — | A+ | — | 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 88% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Band D council tax in Livingston 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.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £204,100, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 156th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
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.