Scotland now has 509 towns, a net rise of 30 since 2014, according to the Understanding Scottish Places (USP) platform, which finds many settlements are both growing and newly emerging.

Drawing on tens of thousands of data points, USP 2025 analyses population, employment, house prices, business composition and public services. It shows that 53.8% of people in Scotland live in a town with between 1,000 and 50,000 residents.

The relaunched site allows users to compare places easily, identifying towns with similar characteristics and offering interactive maps to give immediate visual insights.

Backed by the Scottish Government and led by Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) and the University of Stirling, the update has been unveiled at Scotland’s Towns Conference in Glasgow today (Thursday 27 November).

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, said: "The Scottish Government is delighted to have helped fund the development and refresh of Understanding Scottish Places.

"As a tool, the information it provides is instrumental in supporting local authorities, businesses, communities and other partners to inform planning and investment decisions to improve Scotland’s places. Everyone working in towns and places in Scotland should ensure they make use of it."

The enhanced USP draws on the 2022 census and other verified sources, benchmarking against the 2011 census and the first iteration of the site, launched in 2014.

Aberdeenshire records the highest number of newly classified towns (five), followed by Fife (four) and three each in Angus, Highland and the Scottish Borders. In total, 33 places are newly classed as towns, contributing to the net gain of 30 overall.

Anne Findlay, a Research Fellow at the University of Stirling, led the data analysis. She said: "The growth of towns is one of the most important outcomes from the work we’ve done. I certainly didn’t expect that we would see the number increase from 479 to 509 – as well as others growing to become classified as larger and medium-sized towns.

"It’s been exciting to look and see where those places are and to offer a way for people to understand what’s happening with Scotland’s towns in 2025.

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"The statistics show that towns are developing in new and interesting ways, but USP also helps people understand how towns relate to each other. That’s important.

"I hope the data will spark a lot of conversations, including how towns could develop in future."

USP 2025 points to a new kind of "new town". Alongside a small number of purpose-built places – such as Countesswells, near Aberdeen – others have emerged through sustained housebuilding, particularly within commuting range of cities.

Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders, now home to about 2,000 people, has grown from being part of Galashiels to a town in its own right, with the Borders Railway to Edinburgh credited as a catalyst. "Connectivity is incredibly important," explained Anne Findlay. "People are undoubtedly attracted to places by the rail network. We’ve seen that in places including Tweedbank, but also elsewhere such as Fife."

Other new commuter settlements include Liff in Angus (linked to Dundee) and Maidenhill in East Renfrewshire (linked to Glasgow). Growth stories also include newly classified island towns, areas delivering more affordable and social housing, and places benefiting from green energy infrastructure.

Existing towns are expanding too. Bilston in Midlothian has seen its population surge by 74% since 2014 to around 2,000, aided by new housing and strong access to Edinburgh. Kirkcaldy in Fife is now Scotland’s sixth-largest town, with 51,000 residents (up 3% since 2014) and a 5% rise in households.

Leigh Sparks, Professor in Retail Studies at the University of Stirling and Chair of STP, said: "No town is an island. No town is static either. They are all changing. Understanding how we adapt the services we provide, the way in which we live and work and how all of that fits together is really important.

"USP is about people and places. If people understand their places, we will have better towns and a better society and economy. That’s where USP has a valuable role to play.

"The data is insightful, both in terms of what it tells us about individual towns and places, but also in understanding how Scotland is changing and how that might affect some decisions in the future."

With more towns comes a need to consider how best to connect them – physically and through services. Prof Sparks added: "The variety of new towns – not in the same way as the new towns of the 1960s and 1970s were created, but the way in which new settlements above 1,000 people have emerged in a variety of locations and types – makes us think about how they connect.

"Are they really urban villages as part of a bigger town? Or are they completely separate?

"What services should we be providing at the starting point? By not providing services, what behaviours are we embedding which might not want to see in Scotland?

"How we develop places becomes quite important. Ideally we would be incremental – building town centre living, developments that intensify our uses in a sensible way – but when we do build new places that are outside or on the edge, what do we provide for them at the outset?

"USP helps pose those questions for developers and policymakers."

STP, which also leads Scotland’s Improvement Districts and the Scotland Loves Local campaign, says the new USP data will be central to its work in the years ahead. Kimberley Guthrie, the organisation’s Chief Officer, said: "The new data sets we have with our updated USP will allow us to make a significant difference in understanding what we need to do in Scotland’s towns over the next few years.

"We have an opportunity to create fresh perspectives on how we improve our towns and have more people living, working, visiting and using them."

She added: "I’m looking forward to working with everyone who has an interest – and a role to play – in our towns.

"Being able to understand more about what we need to do to get our towns fit for the future, as well as understanding some of the complexities that create opportunities will allow for significant progress to be made.

"We are grateful to the Scottish Government for their support in making this valuable update to USP possible."

USP is being demonstrated live at Scotland’s Towns Conference, held at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow, with hundreds of attendees from the public, private, community and third sectors focused on investment and innovation.