Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The average domestic rates bill is £1,347 a year. The large town has 29,677 residents and lies in Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland.
Easy on the wallet, harder on other counts. With an A− overall, Newtownards is better than three quarters of UK towns and ranks #4 of 6 in Ards and North Down and #30 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Housing is within reach (A+): homes sell for a median £177,700, about 3.6 times local household income. Health outcomes fall short of most towns (C−): life expectancy 78.6 for men, 84 for women.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · 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 2 things Newtownards 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 Newtownards is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 57 buildings inside Newtownards’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 4 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1900.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Newtownards. Best known first.
Abbey or prioryPriory of Saint Columbain town
Abbey or prioryBangor Abbey4.9 km outside town, to the north
CastleBangor Castle4.9 km outside town, to the northMuseumMuseumArds Arts Centrein townMuseumMuseumWar Years Rememberedin townMuseumMuseumSomme Heritage Centre500 m outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newtownards.
Social housing holds 20% of households, above Ards and North Down’s towns (14%) and close to Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). No town in Ards and North Down costs less to buy into than Newtownards, at £177,700, the lowest of 6. Nearly two thirds of households own their home.
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 Newtownards, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Some 4,721 pupils attend Newtownards’s eight primaries and two secondaries. Of its 12 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abbey Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 609 | – |
| Regent House GrammarLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,484 | B |
At the census, 28% of people here had a disability, above both Ards and North Down’s towns (25%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (26%). Of the 6 towns in Ards and North Down, Newtownards has the largest share in bad or very bad health: 8.8%.
| Census 2021 | Newtownards | Ards and North Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 75% | 78% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.8% | 7.3% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 28% | 25% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like 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.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 1,636 crimes inside Newtownards’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 720 reports of anti-social behaviour. Homes saw 9.1 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, about level with Northern Ireland’s towns (8.8) and above Ards and North Down’s towns (6.4). Violence and sexual offences made up 56% 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.
At the top of the list, 1 are Grade A and 2 Grade B+. Newtownards’s listed buildings include St. Mark’s (C of I) parish church, Grade A. 4 scheduled monuments lie locally.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 17% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
84% of commuters drove to work at the census. Of the commuters living in Newtownards, 32% work in the town itself. Home was the main workplace for 17% of workers at the census.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
The under-15s are 17% of the population here. People aged 15 to 24 make up just over a tenth of the town, higher than Ards and North Down’s towns (10%) yet lower than Northern Ireland’s towns (12%). Those 65 and older account for 20% of residents. The median resident of Newtownards is 42.5 years old.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Newtownards | Ards and North Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 20% | 22% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 24% | 19% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 26% | 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
57 listed buildings in Newtownards, 1 of them Grade I.
St. Mark’s (C of I) parish church: Photo: Dean Molyneaux · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Town Hall Conway Square Newtownards Co. Down: Photo: Jonathan Billinger · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Newtownards Model Primary School: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Masonic Hall: Photo: Martyn Boyd · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
45 notable people were born in Newtownards.
Eddie Irvine: Franmarjos, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rhys McClenaghan: Norman Seibert, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Martyn Irvine: Nicola, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ricky Warwick: kitmasterbloke, CC BY 2.0 · Steven Kane: Robk23oxf, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newtownards | 29,677 | — | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Comber | 9,529 | 3.9 | A | A+ | A− | C |
| Bangor | 64,596 | 4 | B+ | A+ | B+ | C |
| Donaghadee | 7,325 | 6.5 | B+ | A+ | A− | C+ |
| Holywood | 10,757 | 6.5 | A | A | B+ | C+ |
| Metropolitan Castlereagh | 58,763 | 7.1 | A+ | A+ | A− | C |
| Ballygowan | 3,138 | 7.6 | A | A+ | A | C+ |
| Carryduff | 7,173 | 9.8 | A+ | A+ | A | B |
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 £177,700, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 46th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
It has less crime than most places its size: less crime per resident than 67% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C+.
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
Newtownards is a settlement of 29,677 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.