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Best places to live in the UK: what the data can actually say

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated 18 September 2026 · Land Registry · data.police.uk · ONS

393 English and Welsh towns have both a year of house-price data and a year of crime data on true town boundaries. 61 of them sit below the national median on both. This page shows the measured cuts and refuses the one thing every best-places list sells: a single ranking.

A "best place to live" score means deciding how many pounds of house price equal one recorded offence, whether a pub matters more than a fast train, and how much sunshine is worth. Those are your weights, and no dataset holds them. What a dataset can do is put the measures side by side on the same honest boundary, which is what the tables below are.

Below the median on both price and crime

The national town medians are £259,950 and 100 recorded offences per 1,000 residents. These towns clear both bars, cheapest first:

#	Town	County	Median price	Offences /1,000	Median age (est.)	Residents
1	Consett	County Durham	£145,000	91.0	42.7	29,885
2	Washington	Sunderland	£155,000	89.0	44.4	51,320
3	Aberdare	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£155,000	97.0	42.3	37,675
4	Skelmersdale	Lancashire	£159,950	98.0	38.4	34,915
5	Whitehaven	Cumbria	£160,750	98.6	44.3	22,945
6	Hebburn	South Tyneside	£165,000	72.4	39.5	21,345
7	Neath	Neath Port Talbot	£180,000	87.7	44.8	40,730
8	Retford	Nottinghamshire	£182,500	87.1	45.0	23,740
9	Runcorn	Borough of Halton	£185,000	85.1	41.1	61,645
10	Cramlington	Northumberland	£188,010	94.0	45.8	28,845
11	Huyton	Knowsley	£190,000	84.6	39.7	59,845
12	Gorleston-on-Sea	Norfolk	£190,000	86.9	43.5	24,470
13	Wallasey	Metropolitan Borough of Wirral	£195,000	82.1	43.2	85,610
14	Pontypool	Torfaen County Borough	£195,000	93.9	43.0	29,070
15	Widnes	Borough of Halton	£195,500	91.8	41.5	59,935
16	Rawtenstall	Lancashire	£197,950	70.0	42.7	23,680
17	Ellesmere Port Town	Cheshire West and Chester	£205,000	98.4	40.9	65,430
18	Burton upon Trent	Staffordshire	£205,000	99.1	37.5	76,255
19	Winsford	Cheshire West and Chester	£210,000	93.2	39.3	32,530
20	Tipton	Sandwell	£210,000	95.9	36.6	47,200
21	Hucknall	Nottinghamshire	£213,000	99.8	40.3	35,840
22	Thetford	Norfolk	£215,000	94.7	38.5	25,510
23	Swadlincote	Derbyshire	£215,000	85.4	41.7	34,565
24	Rugeley	Staffordshire	£215,000	90.0	42.1	26,145
25	Leyland	Lancashire	£215,000	95.7	42.7	39,295
26	Chapeltown	Sheffield	£215,000	68.8	47.9	22,180
27	Bingley	Bradford	£215,000	86.0	45.8	21,330
28	Ossett	City and Borough of Wakefield	£218,000	72.3	45.0	21,855
29	Rowley Regis	Sandwell	£220,000	79.4	37.6	39,050
30	Corby	North Northamptonshire	£220,000	98.2	37.0	68,160

31 more towns clear both bars; every town's own page carries its full figures.

The value towns, cut by age instead

Whether a town should feel young or settled is a preference, so the same 61-town value list cuts both ways rather than ranking either as better. The youngest of the towns that clear both bars:

#	Town	County	Median price	Offences /1,000	Median age (est.)	Residents
1	Tipton	Sandwell	£210,000	95.9	36.6	47,200
2	Corby	North Northamptonshire	£220,000	98.2	37.0	68,160
3	Burton upon Trent	Staffordshire	£205,000	99.1	37.5	76,255
4	Rowley Regis	Sandwell	£220,000	79.4	37.6	39,050
5	Skelmersdale	Lancashire	£159,950	98.0	38.4	34,915
6	Thetford	Norfolk	£215,000	94.7	38.5	25,510
7	Daventry	West Northamptonshire	£255,000	90.5	38.9	27,790
8	Ipswich	Suffolk	£245,000	95.1	39.0	151,565
9	Winsford	Cheshire West and Chester	£210,000	93.2	39.3	32,530
10	Hebburn	South Tyneside	£165,000	72.4	39.5	21,345

And the oldest, which is where the value list meets the retirement question:

#	Town	County	Median price	Offences /1,000	Median age (est.)	Residents
1	Lytham St Annes	Lancashire	£259,950	80.1	54.4	42,695
2	Stourport-on-Severn	Worcestershire	£247,000	58.7	50.2	20,305
3	Beverley	East Riding of Yorkshire	£240,000	64.7	48.9	30,930
4	Southport	Sefton	£225,000	81.0	48.4	94,440
5	Maghull	Sefton	£255,000	48.0	48.4	20,370
6	Paignton	Borough of Torbay	£256,000	93.6	48.4	67,520
7	Chapeltown	Sheffield	£215,000	68.8	47.9	22,180
8	Ryde	Isle of Wight	£230,000	92.6	47.4	24,105
9	Burntwood	Staffordshire	£255,000	68.1	46.8	27,900
10	Kendal	Cumbria	£250,000	84.0	46.6	28,940

The quietest towns, whatever they cost

#	Town	County	Median price	Offences /1,000	Median age (est.)	Residents
1	Heswall	Metropolitan Borough of Wirral	£320,000	34.2	52.2	29,075
2	Harpenden	Hertfordshire	£795,000	36.3	43.2	30,965
3	Sandhurst	Bracknell Forest	£450,000	36.7	41.8	20,215
4	Wokingham	Wokingham	£480,000	41.7	42.5	50,325
5	Crowborough	East Sussex	£425,000	42.3	48.2	21,990
6	Ascot	Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead	£600,000	43.5	45.6	23,995
7	Great Bookham	Surrey	£669,000	44.2	49.7	21,655
8	Dronfield	Derbyshire	£300,000	44.4	49.9	21,160
9	Lee-on-the-Solent	Hampshire	£375,000	46.8	52.3	24,315
10	Chippenham	Wiltshire	£293,000	47.5	42.8	36,090
11	South Benfleet	Essex	£400,000	47.6	46.7	49,885
12	Fleet	Hampshire	£440,000	47.6	43.6	37,790
13	Billericay	Essex	£475,000	47.8	44.7	34,075
14	Seaford	East Sussex	£375,000	47.9	54.6	23,865
15	Maghull	Sefton	£255,000	48.0	48.4	20,370
16	Wilmslow	Cheshire East	£453,200	49.8	44.1	25,725
17	Formby	Sefton	£335,000	50.5	52.1	22,890
18	West Molesey	Surrey	£715,000	50.8	43.0	47,150
19	Ormskirk	Lancashire	£280,000	53.9	38.7	27,715
20	Oadby	Leicestershire	£327,000	54.2	40.9	24,030

The cheapest towns, with their crime rates shown

#	Town	County	Median price	Offences /1,000	Median age (est.)	Residents
1	Nelson	Lancashire	£97,000	116.7	33.4	33,805
2	Thornaby-on-Tees	Stockton-on-Tees	£132,000	185.7	39.5	23,350
3	Workington	Cumbria	£135,000	143.4	41.7	21,275
4	Fleetwood	Lancashire	£135,000	116.9	44.4	26,225
5	Ashington	Northumberland	£135,000	126.2	42.7	28,280
6	Seaham	County Durham	£136,000	130.4	43.6	21,665
7	Grimsby	North East Lincolnshire	£137,000	168.5	39.7	85,925
8	Accrington	Lancashire	£137,500	158.1	36.2	34,895
9	Burnley	Lancashire	£139,950	157.5	38.7	78,255
10	Kingston upon Hull	City of Kingston upon Hull	£140,000	140.4	37.1	270,810
11	Great Yarmouth	Norfolk	£140,000	233.8	38.0	28,985
12	Hartlepool	Hartlepool	£142,500	178.7	42.3	87,995
13	Eston	Redcar and Cleveland	£143,000	221.2	42.0	29,635
14	Spennymoor	County Durham	£144,000	139.5	42.1	20,410
15	Blackpool	Blackpool	£144,500	186.4	44.0	149,070
16	Darwen	Blackburn with Darwen	£145,000	110.3	40.6	27,900
17	Consett	County Durham	£145,000	91.0	42.7	29,885
18	Sunderland	Sunderland	£146,000	115.2	42.6	168,315
19	Bishop Auckland	County Durham	£146,000	186.0	44.4	23,355
20	Merthyr Tydfil	Merthyr Tydfil County Borough	£147,000	110.2	40.3	39,535

Prices are medians of registered Land Registry sales (July 2025 to June 2026); crime is police-recorded offences (August 2025 to July 2026) per 1,000 census residents; median ages are 2021 census, estimated within five-year bands, and never part of any cut because no direction of age is better; all on ONS built-up-area boundaries, towns of 20,000+ residents with at least 50 annual sales. Recorded crime is not crime experienced, and visitor towns run high per resident. Greater Manchester and Gloucestershire towns cannot appear in crime-based tables because their constabularies do not publish. London is measured by borough, not as towns. Scotland and Northern Ireland hold separate registers.

The pieces behind this page: house prices by town, crime rates by town, median age by town, broadband by town, and each town's own page with its schools and high street counted. For what the towns themselves are like, the largest towns and population trends pages carry the twenty-year view.

Common questions

What is the best place to live in the UK?

There is no measured answer, because best means weighing house prices against crime against everything you personally value, and that weighting is yours to choose. What the data can say: 61 towns sit below the national median on both price (£259,950) and recorded crime (100 per 1,000), and the tables here name them.

Where is cheap to live with low crime?

Consett in County Durham tops the value table: a median sale price of £145,000 with 91.0 recorded offences per 1,000 residents, both comfortably below the national town medians. 61 towns clear both bars, most of them in the North and in Wales.

Why is there no single ranking of the best towns?

Because any single ranking hides a weighting decision: how many pounds of house price equals one recorded offence per thousand? No measurement answers that, so a site that publishes one is publishing an opinion dressed as data. We show each measure separately and let you weigh them, which is the only honest version.

Which of the value towns are young, and which suit retirement?

Of the 61 towns below the national median on both price and crime, the youngest is Tipton in Sandwell (estimated median age 36.6) and the oldest is Lytham St Annes in Lancashire (54.4). Neither end is better: the tables cut the same list both ways and leave the choice where it belongs. Medians are estimated within five-year census bands.

What about schools, jobs and transport?

All measured now, on the same town boundary: school counts by phase from the DfE register, broadband availability from Ofcom's premises data, census economic activity and occupations (census-day records, with the pandemic caveat stated), railway stations from the current DfT register, and travel-to-work shares. The one refusal is earnings: the official earnings survey stops at district level, so no town-level figure is shown anywhere on this site.