About Eildon
Eildon is the largest of the five area partnerships in Scottish Borders, and is approximately twice the size of the other four areas. It had an estimated population of 36,523 in the 2022 Census. Download a map of the Eildon area.
The main towns in Eildon are:
- Galashiels (13,601)
- Selkirk (5,528)
Other towns and large villages in Eildon with a population over 1k are:
- Melrose (2,068)
- Tweedbank (2,049)
- Lauder (1,882)
- Earlston (1,764)
- Newtown St Boswells (1,592)
The only other village with a population of over 500 is Stow (713).
Annual population estimates for settlements over 500 people are recorded by National Records of Scotland.
19.7% of Eildon's population (7,184 people) in Eildon lived in settlements of under 500 people, or in isolated hamlets. Population counts for these settlements are recorded by the decennial Population Census.
Settlements with a population of less than 500, that were recorded by the 2022 Census, include:
- Darnick (481)
- Gattonside (423)
- Newstead (404)
- Lilliesleaf (348)
- Oxton (340)
- Bowden (301)
- Lindean (199)
- Fountainhall (191)
- Ettrickbridge (176)
- Heriot Village (172)
- Midlem (161)
- Ashkirk (126)
- Blainslie (124)
- Caddonfoot (107)
- Redpath (91)
- Eildon village (77)
Population Change
The population of Eildon increased slightly between 2011 and 2022 but this affected the large locality unevenly.
The biggest population increases in the larger settlements were in Tweedbank (56.4% increase) and Newtown St Boswells (34.7%). Lauder also saw a 10.8% increase.
There were also large population increases in the smaller settlements of Lindean, Caddonfoot, Newstead and Darnick between 2011 and 2022.
The largest settlement of Galashiels actually shrank slightly between 2011 and 2022 as new housebuilding in one part of the town led to a micro-migration from other parts of the town that were undergoing selective redevelopment.
Despite this, Galashiels is now the largest town in the Scottish Borders, following decades of population loss from the formerly largest town of Hawick.
Selkirk, Eildon's second largest town, lost 4.4% of its population between 2011 and 2022.
Smaller settlements that shrank between 2011 and 2022 include: Gattonside, Fountainhall and Eildon village. There has also been significant population movement away from isolated hamlets and farmsteads, towards the larger population centres.