Machynlleth has a population of 2,235, making it the 8th largest place in Sir Powys. In 2005 the World Gazetteer recorded 2,171, a rise of 2.9% since.
The other populations of Machynlleth
The same name covers more than one area, and each has its own figure.
| What you mean | Population | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The place itself The populated settlement, roughly the built-up core. |
2,235 | GeoNames |
| The built-up area Continuous development, where buildings sit less than 200m apart. Drawn from where the buildings are, not where the council boundary is. |
2,160 | ONS Census 2021 (2021) |
| The place in 2005 The same settlement twenty years earlier. |
2,171 | World Gazetteer (2005) |
Why these differ: which population figure is right? · compare with another place
Machynlleth in context
Distances are straight-line from the settlement's recorded coordinates. The 10 km figure sums the recorded places within that radius, so it describes how built-up the surroundings are rather than people per square kilometre.
The centre of Machynlleth sits in postcode district SY20.
Food and drink on the high street
| Registered premises | Count |
|---|---|
| Restaurants and cafés (83.3 per 10,000 residents) | 18 |
| Takeaways and sandwich shops (32.4 per 10,000 residents) | 7 |
| Pubs, bars and nightclubs (37.0 per 10,000 residents) | 8 |
| Hotels, B&Bs and guest houses (18.5 per 10,000 residents) | 4 |
| Supermarkets and hypermarkets (4.6 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
Counts are registered food premises in the Machynlleth built-up area (2,160 residents at the 2021 census), from the FSA food hygiene register, extracted 17 August 2026. The boundary is drawn from where the buildings are, so these figures cover the town itself rather than the wider council area, and no total is shown because the register also lists premises nobody would call a venue: school kitchens, care homes, warehouses. Compare towns →
Shops and services
| Premises | Count |
|---|---|
| Shops (all retail) (361.1 per 10,000 residents) | 78 |
| Cafés (32.4 per 10,000 residents) | 7 |
| Hairdressing salons (4.6 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
| Banks and building societies (4.6 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
| Leisure and sports centres (4.6 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
| Surgeries (GP, dental and similar) (13.9 per 10,000 residents) | 3 |
| Libraries (4.6 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
| Community centres (13.9 per 10,000 residents) | 3 |
| Car parks (4.6 per 10,000 residents) | 1 |
Shops, cafés, salons, banks, post offices and arcades are rateable premises by use on the VOA 2023 rating list — the shops figure is all general retail, charity shops included. Gambling premises come from the Gambling Commission's licensing register, which lists 6,251 betting shops nationally against the rating list's 3,838: many betting shops are rated as ordinary shops, so the licensing register is the truer count and the one used here. Categories the rating list counts badly are deliberately absent rather than wrong: petrol stations disappear into supermarket ratings, vets and museums run far under their professional registers, and pools and nurseries mostly rate inside other premises. Same built-up-area boundary as the download table on this page.
Crime, per 1,000 residents
| Category (police-recorded, 12 months) | Rate |
|---|---|
| Violence and sexual offences | 42.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | 8.3 |
| Shoplifting | 2.3 |
| Criminal damage and arson | 8.8 |
| Vehicle crime | 1.4 |
| Burglary | 2.8 |
| Other theft | 2.8 |
| All recorded offences | 81.9 |
The all-offences line is a count of records, not a safety score: it weighs every category equally, which is exactly why we publish the categories. We deliberately do not combine them into a single index.
Figures are police-recorded crime (August 2025 to July 2026) located to this built-up area, per 1,000 residents at the 2021 census. Three cautions, each of which changes how a rate should be read: recorded crime is not crime experienced, because reporting rates differ by category and by place; the denominator counts residents, so town centres and visitor towns run high per resident precisely because many people there are not residents; and a high figure can reflect more reporting as easily as more crime. Percentiles compare towns of 10,000+ residents. Greater Manchester and Gloucestershire constabularies do not publish, so their towns show a note instead of a partial figure. Compare towns →
Schools
| Maintained schools in the built-up area | Count |
|---|---|
| Middle schools | 1 |
From the Welsh Government's address list of schools (April 2026), located to this built-up area by postcode. Maintained schools only. No capacity or fill figures are shown: Wales publishes no per-school capacity file beside the address list, and the English pages' fill rates come from exactly such a file, so a Welsh version would be a guess.
Broadband
| Availability | % of homes |
|---|---|
| Gigabit-capable (1,000 Mbit/s+) | 83.4% |
| Superfast (30 Mbit/s+) | 96.4% |
| Unable to get 10 Mbit/s download | 1 home (0.1%) |
Share of the 1,083 residential premises in this built-up area that the fixed network can serve at each speed, from Ofcom's Connected Nations coverage data (network state July 2025). Availability is what the line to a home can deliver if ordered, not what households actually subscribe to, and a full-fibre street where everyone bought the cheapest package shows 100% here. Percentile compares towns of 10,000+ residents. Compare towns →
Go deeper
Nearby in Sir Powys
| # | Place | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knighton | 3,719 |
| 2 | Llanidloes | 2,929 |
| 3 | Builth Wells | 2,829 |
| 4 | Crickhowell | 2,063 |
| 5 | Presteigne | 2,056 |
| 6 | Rhayader | 1,824 |