The Red MSX Source ( RMS ) survey has identified a large sample of massive young stellar objects ( MYSOs ) and ultra compact ( UC ) HII regions from a sample of \sim 2000 MSX and 2MASS colour selected sources . Using a recent catalogue of molecular clouds derived from the Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory ( BU-FCRAO ) Galactic Ring Survey ( GRS ) , and by applying a Galactic scaleheight cut off of 120 pc , we solve the distance ambiguity for RMS sources located within 18 \degr < |l| > 54 \degr . These two steps yield kinematic distances to 291 sources out of a possible 326 located within the GRS longitude range . Combining distances and integrated fluxes derived from spectral energy distributions , we estimate luminosities to these sources and find that > 90 per cent are indicative of the presence of a massive star . We find the completeness limit of our sample is \sim 10 ^ { 4 } L _ { \odot } , which corresponds to a zero age main sequence ( ZAMS ) star with a mass of \sim 12 M _ { \odot } . Selecting only these sources , we construct a complete sample of 196 sources . Comparing the properties of the sample of young massive stars with the general population , we find the RMS-clouds are generally larger , more massive , and more turbulent . We examine the distribution of this sub-sample with respect to the location of the spiral arms and the Galactic bar and find them to be spatially correlated . We identify three significant peaks in the source surface density at Galactocentric radii of approximately 4 , 6 and 8 kpc , which correspond to the proposed positions of the Scutum , Sagittarius and Perseus spiral arms , respectively . Fitting a scale height to the data we obtain an average value of \sim 29 \pm 0.5 pc , which agrees well with other reported values in the literature , however , we note a dependence of the scale height on galactocentric radius with it increases from 30 pc to 45 pc between 2.5 and 8.5 kpc .