Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The average domestic rates bill is £1,347 a year. With 64,596 residents, it is a large town in Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland.
Cost of living is its strong suit: the median home sold for £193,000, 3.9 years of area income. Crime is low: police record 18.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, and 6.4 home and vehicle crimes. Health outcomes fall short of most towns (C): life expectancy 80.1 for men, 82.9 for women. Overall, that makes a B+, better than 73% of UK towns. Its place in the ranking is #33 of 63 in Northern Ireland.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · life expectancy, ONS.
This town's Cost Grade uses house prices and the domestic rates bill: Northern Ireland has no council tax, and no rents are published for its council areas. This town's Health Grade uses NISRA's life expectancy for its district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. Healthy life expectancy and the early-death and hospital measures English towns use aren't published for small areas in Northern Ireland. This town's School Grade uses GCSE results at the post-primary schools its children travel to, grammar and non-grammar, compared with schools across Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland publishes no primary school results. Northern Ireland has no Jobs Grade (no small-area income, claimant or job-access data is published) and no Hazards Grade (its flood maps aren't open data).
The 3 things Bangor does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Bangor is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 93 buildings inside Bangor’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 3 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Bangor. Best known first.
Abbey or prioryBangor Abbeyin town
CastleBangor Castlein town
MuseumUlster Folk and Transport Museum4.8 km outside town, to the west
FortGrey Point Fort2.1 km outside town, to the northwest
Abbey or prioryPriory of Saint Columba3.9 km outside town, to the southMuseumMuseumNorth Down Museumin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Bangor.
Bangor is the second cheapest of the 6 towns in Ards and North Down, at £193,000. 12% live in social housing, below Ards and North Down’s towns (14%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%) alike. Households that own their home make up 72%.
NISRA / Land & Property Services ward sale prices and domestic rates · NISRA Census 2021 tenure · OGL · The figure is NISRA’s median sale price for the wards around Bangor, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Of its 20 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Between them, 12 primaries and four secondaries teach 9,637 pupils in Bangor.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kilmaine Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 642 | – |
| Bangor Academy & Sixth Form CollegeLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,867 | C |
Nearly four fifths of Bangor’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, above both Ards and North Down’s towns (78%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (77%). Disability touches nearly a quarter of the town’s population. Women here live to 82.9 on average and men to 80.1 (2022–24).
| Census 2021 | Bangor | Ards and North Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 78% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.8% | 7.3% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 24% | 25% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · These shares come straight from the census, without allowing for age, and young towns benefit; the Health Grade instead weighs age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
In the 12 months to August 2026, the PSNI logged 2,162 crimes and 1,208 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Bangor’s settlement. Violence and sexual offences made up 58% of the total.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the NISRA settlement boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Bangor’s listed buildings include Town Hall, Bangor Castle, Grade A. For its size, Bangor has the second fewest listed buildings of the towns in Ards and North Down. Grade B+ covers 7 of them, Grade A 1.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
People 65 and over make up just over a fifth of the town. One in ten residents are 15 to 24, about level with Ards and North Down’s towns (10%) and below Northern Ireland’s towns (12%). The median resident of Bangor is 43.8 years old. Children under 15 count for 17% of the people here.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Bangor | Ards and North Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 9.8% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 22% | 22% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 19% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 36% | 34% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Ards and North Down and Northern Ireland: all residents of their settlements · Women and men: whole data zones, which approximate the town’s boundary · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 23% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Walking, cycling and public transport carried 14% of commuters at the census. Work in town: two fifths of resident commuters. Driving is how 84% of commuters got to work at the census.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
93 listed buildings in Bangor, 1 of them Grade I.
Bangor War Memorial: Photo: Notafly · CC BY-SA 3.0 · St Comgall's Parish Church of Ireland: Photo: Ross · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bangor: Photo: Rossographer · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Royal Ulster Yacht Club: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
56 notable people were born in Bangor.
Josh Magennis: Jonesy702, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Gary Lightbody: Jacqui Sadler, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lembit Öpik: bobaliciouslondon, CC BY 2.0 · Foy Vance: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Aimee Richardson: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangor | 64,596 | — | B+ | A+ | B+ | C |
| Newtownards | 29,677 | 4 | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Donaghadee | 7,325 | 5 | B+ | A+ | A− | C+ |
| Holywood | 10,757 | 6.7 | A | A | B+ | C+ |
| Whitehead | 3,537 | 7.4 | B+ | A+ | B+ | C− |
| Comber | 9,529 | 7.8 | A | A+ | A− | C |
| Carrickfergus | 28,141 | 7.8 | B | A+ | B+ | C− |
| Greenisland | 5,383 | 8.8 | A− | A+ | A− | C+ |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £193,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 52nd most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 4 post-primary schools are inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
Northern Ireland has no council tax: homes pay domestic rates, set on the home’s capital value, and the rates also pay for water. The average bill in Ards and North Down is about £1,347 a year for 2026–27, against England’s average council tax per home of £1,868. Your own bill depends on your home’s value; check it with Land & Property Services on nidirect.
Large town in Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
Bangor is a settlement of 64,596 people, in the Ards and North Down council area. TownRatings uses NISRA’s settlements (the 2015 Settlement Development Limits) as Northern Ireland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from NISRA geography and Census 2021
Sources: NISRA Census 2021, data zones best-fitted to the NISRA Settlement Development Limits 2015 (settlement totals from NISRA where it publishes them) · NISRA / Land & Property Services verified residential sales by ward, 2005 to 2024, new and existing dwellings (medians; the 2022 to 2024 headline brought to early-2025 prices with the LPS house price index, which runs to 2026) · Land & Property Services domestic rates paid by council, 2025-26, and Department of Finance rate poundages 2026-27 · data.police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), 36 months to August 2026, points inside the settlement boundary · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and NISRA Census 2021 general health and disability, adjusted for age · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils · Department of Education examination performance at post-primary schools 2024/25 and school-level enrolment data 2025/26 · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.