Britain has beautiful scenery and a long history. Scotland is a beautiful place to live in if you want to move to a place with a mild climate, tasty food, and lots of fun outdoors things to do. Most people know the country for its beautiful countryside, castles, and gardens, as well as for its great beer and whisky.
There are many good reasons to move to Scotland, whether you are from a Scottish family or just want to experience the culture. It is also good to know the cost of living in the United Kingdom if you want to move to this amazing place, but if you are considering moving to Scotland, read on as we rank the top 7 best places to live in Scotland based on the quality of life in 2024.
Based on “best” being a subjective word, below is our methodology to compile the best places.
Using our ranking of the safest and cheapest places to live in Scotland, we based our ranking on three criteria: safety, affordability, and quality of life.
Our safety ranking methodology is based on a careful analysis of crimes, which is derived from Police Service of Scotland records recorded in the years 2022–2023. The 2022 mid-year population estimates from the National Records of Scotland were released after the publication of the Recorded Crime in Scotland 2022–23 bulletin. Consequently, the 2021 mid-year population estimates were utilized to calculate the 2022 population rates. The crimes consist of dishonesty, non-sexual crimes, crimes against society, damage and recklessness, sexual crimes, and coronavirus restrictions. The Scotland Police calculated the average number of various crimes per 10,000 people.
Affordability takes into account the prices of housing and renting. We collected the data from the UK House Price Index Scotland (September 2023) and Zoopla in December 2023. To help you compare, as of September 2023, the average property buying cost in Scotland is £195,000, and the average 1-bed flat rent is £753 as of January 2024.
The “best quality of life” aspect is measured based on feedback from real people who have moved to this area in our database or real people from trusted online forums. More specifically, we look for positive feedback on job opportunities, quality of education, quality of healthcare, feeling of safety, public transportation, environment (cleanliness), as well as availability of recreational facilities and parks.
