Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0How Ards and North Down stacks up
In Ards and North Down, town by town, 100% of residents live in the safest quarter of towns in the UK, 1st among the areas. The overall grade: B+, a score of 72 that ranks 19th. It offers homes within reach (a typical home costs 4.4 times household income), but at the cost of a reliance on the car (only 12% of commuters walk, cycle or ride) and health that trails most areas.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
6th of 65A92/100 Safe nearly everywhere. By police.uk’s count, violent crime here comes to 19.9 offences per 1,000 residents a year, 15% below the figure for Northern Ireland. No area puts more of its town residents in the safest quarter of towns (100%). 100% of town residents live in a top-quarter town; Ballygowan ranks highest, at #39.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 34 per 1,000 a year (3rd lowest).
Source: police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), September 2025 to August 2026; Census 2021 residents.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 6 Ards and North Down towns.
Low crime nearly everywhere
Its safest towns are Donaghadee (#140), Comber (#213) and Holywood (#303), ranked against every graded town in the UK.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| Surrey | 71% | 2% |
Where crimes are counted
police.uk places every crime at a street or public place near where it happened, never an address, and we count it where that point falls. The council area figure counts violent and sexual offences everywhere in Ards and North Down, including town centres, stations and shopping streets. Town grades count the crimes that touch residents where they live (violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage), so a town with a busy centre is not marked down for its shoplifting.
Schools
37th of 90B60/100 Somewhat above-average schools. At GCSE it ranks 5th highest of 11 Northern Ireland council areas, with 74% of pupils getting five good grades including English and maths. Bangor and Donaghadee weigh on the town measure; 58% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places.
Source: Department of Education school performance: pupils with five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, every post-primary school in the district. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 6 Ards and North Down towns.
Cost of living
24th of 98A−76/100 Consistently affordable. No area puts more of its town residents in the most affordable quarter of towns (100%). Homes cost 4.4 times what the average household takes in a year, 13% above the figure for Northern Ireland: a typical sale of £215,500 against income of £49,000. Over five years, typical prices have risen 39%.
Typical sale price: £215,500 (2,778 sales, 46th lowest).
Average domestic rates bill £1,347 (Northern Ireland has rates, not council tax). Shown for context.
Source: NISRA and Land & Property Services median house prices, brought up to date with each district’s house price index; household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); domestic rates. Prices: NISRA/LPS median of all verified residential sales in 2024, brought to 2025Q3..2026Q2 prices with the LGD's LPS house price index; 5-year change = LPS index 2025Q3..2026Q2 vs 2020Q3..2021Q2.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 6 Ards and North Down towns.
Health
72nd of 98C27/100 Health trails most areas. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Holywood comes closest, at #1,200 of 2,515. Of a life expectancy of 81.7 years, 65.8 are expected in good health (6th longest among the Northern Ireland council areas). The area-wide figure flatters its towns; villages and the countryside lift it.
Total life expectancy is 81.7 years (3rd longest).
Source: ONS healthy life expectancy by district, 2022 to 2024 (a survey-based figure, converted to the scale of the England and Wales small-area figures), and NISRA life expectancy; men and women averaged. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts only.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 6 Ards and North Down towns.
Jobs & income
33rd of 98B+67/100 Incomes a notch above average. Ards and North Down ranks 47th highest for household income, at £49,000 a year before tax. Its claimant rate, 2.6%, ranks 22nd lowest, while household income ranks 47th highest.
Claimant rate: 2.6% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 22nd lowest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size (Northern Ireland has no small-area income figures); claimant count (August 2026) by district.
Ards and North Down has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
89th of 98D9/100 Among the most car-dependent areas. Ards and North Down ranks 9th lowest for getting to work without a car: 12% of commuters walk, cycle or ride. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Holywood, #770.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 23% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work by district; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 6 Ards and North Down towns.
Flood risk
Not gradedNot graded: no flood-risk data for Northern Ireland yet. We have not yet loaded flood-risk maps for Northern Ireland, so its council areas, like its towns, have no flood-risk grade. Their overall grade weighs the other subjects.
Growth
52nd of 98B−47/100 Average growth. Every neighbour scores higher, Belfast, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Newry, Mourne and Down among them. Ards and North Down grew 5.4% from 2011 to 2024, against 6.3% for Northern Ireland.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +1.0% (27th slowest).
Source: NISRA mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Ards and North Down has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Ards and North Down compares to its neighbours
Each of its neighbours (Belfast, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Newry, Mourne and Down) does better on growth.
| Ards and North Down | Belfast | Lisburn and Castlereagh | Newry, Mourne and Down | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B+ 7219th of 65 | B− 4834th of 65 | A+ 954th of 65 | A 926th of 65 |
| Safety | A 928th official · 100% in top towns | D 1355th official | A+ 973rd official · 100% in top towns | A− 846th official · 41% in top towns |
| Schools | B 605th official · 10% in top towns | A 912nd official | B− 516th official · 6% in top towns | A− 824th official · 49% in top towns |
| Cost of living | A− 7636th official · 100% in top towns | A− 8416th official | B+ 7338th official · 100% in top towns | A 9015th official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | C 276th official · 0% in top towns | D− 410th official | B+ 721st official · 13% in top towns | C+ 443rd official · 0% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | B+ 6747th official | C− 1860th official | A 9326th official | A 8621st official |
| Getting about | D 990th official · 0% in top towns | A 928th official | D 1188th official · 0% in top towns | D 694th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Growth | B− 4759th official | B− 4958th official | A 8815th official | B 5553rd official |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.