Photo: Joseph Mischyshyn · CC BY-SA 2.0How Belfast stacks up
Belfast’s strongest suit is homes within reach (a typical home costs 4.0 times household income). Across every subject, Belfast lands 34th (B−). Only one Northern Ireland council area gets more of its pupils to five good GCSEs including English and maths: in Belfast, 79% of pupils get five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
57th of 65D13/100 Higher crime than most areas. Every neighbour scores higher, Antrim and Newtownabbey, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Ards and North Down among them. Police recorded 41.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year, 77% above the figure for Northern Ireland (11th highest of 65 areas with police.uk figures).
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 90 per 1,000 a year (13th highest).
Source: police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), September 2025 to August 2026; Census 2021 residents.
Belfast has two 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.
Schools
9th of 90A91/100 Among the strongest schools in Northern Ireland. 79% of pupils get five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, against 75% across Northern Ireland (2nd highest of 11 Northern Ireland council areas). No neighbour beats it on schools; Ards and North Down comes closest.
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.
Belfast has two 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.
Cost of living
17th of 98A−84/100 More affordable than most. At £181,100 for a typical home and £45,900 of household income, prices run 4.0 times income, the 16th lowest ratio of 98 areas. Over five years, typical prices have risen 35%.
The middle home sold for £181,100 over the past year, 16th lowest of the areas.
Average domestic rates bill £1,081 (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.
Belfast has two 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.
Health
94th of 98D−4/100 Among the least healthy areas. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 62.3 years (men and women averaged), 2.7 years fewer than the figure for Northern Ireland. Antrim and Newtownabbey, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Ards and North Down all do better on health.
Total life expectancy is 78.5 years (the shortest).
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.
Belfast has two 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.
Jobs & income
81st of 98C−18/100 Money is tighter here. Incomes and work tell different stories: 39th lowest household income, but the 17th highest share claiming out-of-work benefits (3.9%). Households take in £45,900 a year on average before tax, against £50,800 across Northern Ireland (39th lowest of 98 areas). Every neighbour scores higher, Antrim and Newtownabbey, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Ards and North Down among them.
Claimant rate: 3.9% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 17th highest. 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.
Belfast 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
9th of 98A92/100 Among the easiest places to get about without a car. No neighbour beats it on walkability; Lisburn and Castlereagh comes closest. Belfast ranks 8th highest for getting to work without a car: 29% of commuters walk, cycle or ride.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 22% 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.
Belfast has two 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.
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
50th of 98B−49/100 Growing at about the national pace. The population grew 5.5% between 2011 and 2024, to 352,390, against 6.3% across Northern Ireland (41st slowest).
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +2.1% (42nd slowest).
Source: NISRA mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Belfast 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 Belfast compares to its neighbours
Against Antrim and Newtownabbey, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Ards and North Down, Belfast leads on schools and getting about but trails on safety, health and jobs and income.
| Belfast | Antrim and Newtownabbey | Lisburn and Castlereagh | Ards and North Down | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B− 4834th of 65 | B 6325th of 65 | A+ 954th of 65 | B+ 7219th of 65 |
| Safety | D 1355th official | A 9110th official · 78% in top towns | A+ 973rd official · 100% in top towns | A 928th official · 100% in top towns |
| Schools | A 912nd official | D 1011th official · 5% in top towns | B− 516th official · 6% in top towns | B 605th official · 10% in top towns |
| Cost of living | A− 8416th official | A 8520th official · 100% in top towns | B+ 7338th official · 100% in top towns | A− 7636th official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | D− 410th official | C+ 404th official · 0% in top towns | B+ 721st official · 13% in top towns | C 276th official · 0% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C− 1860th official | A− 8140th official | A 9326th official | B+ 6747th official |
| Getting about | A 928th official | D 891st official · 0% in top towns | D 1188th official · 0% in top towns | D 990th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Growth | B− 4958th official | B 5749th official | A 8815th official | B− 4759th 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.