Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 4,290 in West Lothian, Scotland. Band D council tax is £1,628.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Winchburgh has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below. Its strongest subject is schools (A): school leavers’ results beat 89% of Scottish towns. Its weakest is health (C+): life expectancy 80.8 for men, 84.3 for women. The median home sold for £286,000 in the last three years, 6 times what households in the West Lothian council area earn in a year.
The 3 things Winchburgh 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 Winchburgh is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Winchburgh has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 3 buildings inside Winchburgh’s locality, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Winchburgh. Best known first.
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandBlackness Castle4.8 km outside town, to the northwest
CastleNiddry Castle200 m outside town, to the southeast
CastleMidhope Castle2.9 km outside town, to the north
Historic houseDundas Castle2.8 km outside town, to the northeast
Historic houseHopetoun House3 km outside town, to the north
Historic house · National Trust for ScotlandHouse of the Binns3.5 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Winchburgh.
Two of its 4 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Winchburgh’s two primaries and two secondaries have 1,185 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winchburgh Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 436 | – |
| Sinclair AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 281 | – |
68% of households own their home, above both West Lothian’s towns (63%) and Scotland’s towns (60%). Only one of the 13 towns in West Lothian costs more to buy into than Winchburgh, whose median sale is £286,000. Private rents average £908 a month across the West Lothian council area.
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.
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.
Winchburgh counts 0.3 jobs per working resident. 81% of commuters drove, higher than both West Lothian’s towns (78%) and Scotland’s towns (70%). Among 16 to 64s, 2.4% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 5.5% of the town. Just over four fifths of Winchburgh’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, above West Lothian’s towns (79%) and Scotland’s towns (78%) alike. Men in Winchburgh can expect to live to 80.8, women to 84.3 (2020–24).
| Census 2022 | Winchburgh | West Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.5% | 7% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 21% | 24% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
The national list protects one ancient monument in Winchburgh. Per 10,000 residents, Winchburgh counts 7 listed buildings.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
Degrees are held by 36% of adults, higher than both West Lothian’s towns (28%) and Scotland’s towns (32%). Those aged 15 to 24 account for 6.9% of residents. Half of Winchburgh is older than 37.2, half younger. The 65-and-over age group makes up 13% of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About 96 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women.
| Winchburgh | West Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 23% | 18% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 6.9% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 34% | 26% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 23% | 29% | 27% |
| 65+ | 13% | 17% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 16% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 7% | 7.3% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 8.7% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 36% | 28% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · West Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
5 notable people were born in Winchburgh.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winchburgh | 4,290 | — | — | B+ | — | C+ |
| Broxburn | 15,414 | 2 | — | A | — | D |
| Kirkliston | 5,607 | 2.4 | — | B− | — | B− |
| South Queensferry | 10,214 | 3.3 | — | B− | — | B |
| East Calder | 7,249 | 4.3 | — | B | — | C+ |
| Livingston | 55,798 | 4.9 | — | A | — | D |
| Mid Calder | 3,217 | 5 | — | A | — | B |
| Linlithgow | 12,522 | 5.4 | — | A | — | B− |
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.
A young town. At the 2022 Census, 23% of residents were under 15 and 34% were 25 to 44, against 15% and 26% across Scotland’s towns; only 13% were 65 or over.
GCSE results beat 89% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Band D council tax in Winchburgh 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
Winchburgh is a locality of 4,290 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.