Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
7,325 people call this town in Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland home.
Easy on the wallet, harder on other counts. Overall, Donaghadee earns a B+: better than 69% of UK towns, and #39 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Its strongest is cost of living — the median home sold for £239,600, 4.9 years of area income. It is a safe place by the numbers: police record 14 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, and 5.7 home and vehicle crimes. The drawback is schools: GCSE results beat a tenth of Northern Ireland towns.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026.
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 Donaghadee 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 Donaghadee is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 48 buildings inside Donaghadee’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 2 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Donaghadee.
72% of households own their home. Social housing holds 14% of households, close to Ards and North Down’s towns (14%) and below Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). Only one of the 6 towns in Ards and North Down costs more to buy into than Donaghadee, whose median sale is £239,600.
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 Donaghadee, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Of its 2 schools, one is shown below, with the reason. Its one primary school teaches 420 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donaghadee Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 420 | – |
191 crimes and 193 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what the PSNI recorded inside Donaghadee’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026. 60% of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 18 reports per 1,000, close to Ards and North Down’s towns (18.4) and below Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7).
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 Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 22% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For every resident in work, Donaghadee has 0.4 jobs. Just over one in ten commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, below Ards and North Down’s towns (14%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (18%) alike. About 15% of its commuters stay in Donaghadee for work.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Of the 6 towns in Ards and North Down, Donaghadee has the second-largest share in bad or very bad health: 8.1%. At the census, 27% of people here had a disability, higher than both Ards and North Down’s towns (25%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (26%). Men in Donaghadee can expect to live to 82.2, women to 83.3 (2022–24).
| Census 2021 | Donaghadee | Ards and North Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 78% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.1% | 7.3% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 27% | 25% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
At the top of the list, 1 are Grade A and 5 Grade B+. Donaghadee’s listed buildings include The Manor House, Grade A. Relative to its size, Donaghadee keeps 66 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than both Ards and North Down’s towns (19) and Northern Ireland’s towns (34).
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Children under 15 make up 15% of residents. Nearly one in ten residents are 15 to 24, below Ards and North Down’s towns (10%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (12%) alike. Half of Donaghadee is older than 49.2, half younger.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Donaghadee | Ards and North Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 9% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 27% | 22% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 19% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 34% | 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
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Donaghadee. Best known first.
48 listed buildings in Donaghadee, 1 of them Grade I.
Donagahdee (Cof I) parish church: Photo: Ross · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Prospect House: Photo: Albert Bridge · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Tower on The Motte: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Methodist Church: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
7 notable people were born in Donaghadee.
Bear Grylls: Jamie Gray from England www.jamiegrayphotography.co.uk, CC BY 2.0 · Sarah Grand: Elliott & Fry, Public domain · Mason Munn: Jim Easton, CC0 · Patricia Ford: Elliott & Fry, Public domain · Michael McGimpsey: Sdfharkin, CC0 · Sir Hutcheson Poë, 1st Baronet: Agence Rol, Public domain
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donaghadee | 7,325 | — | B+ | A+ | A− | C+ |
| Bangor | 64,596 | 5 | B+ | A+ | B+ | C |
| Newtownards | 29,677 | 6.5 | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Comber | 9,529 | 10 | A | A+ | A− | C |
| Whitehead | 3,537 | 11 | B+ | A+ | B+ | C− |
| Holywood | 10,757 | 11 | A | A | B+ | C+ |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 2.7 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Grade A building is The Manor House. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. Places are handled by the Education Authority.
Town in Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
Donaghadee is a settlement of 7,325 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.