Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
166,868 residents make their home in this city in Berkshire, South East. Only 10% of residents are 65 or over.
A town of contrasts. Its weakest is safety: 43.4 violent and sexual offences and 20.7 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Set beside UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, its crime per resident is higher than in 62%. Getting around on foot or by bus is easy: nearly a quarter of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. At a median £400,000, a home costs 6.8 times the yearly income of households in the Slough council area. Put together, the subjects come to a C overall, better than 33% of UK towns.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · incomes, ONS.
The 3 things Slough does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Slough is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 155 buildings inside Slough’s built-up area, 7 of them Grade I, and 2 scheduled monuments.
6% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1845.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Slough. Best known first.
CastleWindsor Castle2.1 km outside town, to the south
Big drawTheme parkLegoland Windsor4.6 km outside town, to the southwest · 2.3M visitors a year (2024)
Historic houseFrogmore House2.8 km outside town, to the south
Historic house · National TrustCliveden House1.9 km outside town, to the northwest
GardenFrogmore Estate2.9 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Slough.
Langley Grammar School’s results beat nearly every one of schools in England like it. Three of its 50 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Secondary results at the town’s 16 secondary schools: an Attainment 8 score of 55.2, with 62% at grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claycots SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 1,605 | B− |
| Langley Grammar SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,284 | A+ |
| Upton Court Grammar SchoolTop results in townSecondary | Secondary | 1,155 | A+ |
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Police recorded 15,946 crimes inside Slough’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 1,773 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences were 43% of the crimes. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 9.9 reports per 1,000, above Berkshire’s towns (6.2) and England’s towns (7.8) alike.
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 ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Owners make up half of households, below both Berkshire’s towns (63%) and England’s towns (61%). Social renters account for nearly a fifth of households. Private rents average £1,558 a month across the Slough council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £650,000 | 391 |
| Semi-detached | £480,000 | 813 |
| Terraced | £400,000 | 934 |
| Flat or maisonette | £245,000 | 919 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 28% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: 28% of workers, below both Berkshire’s towns (41%) and England’s towns (31%). Slough counts 1 jobs per working resident. 45% of commuters who live in Slough also work there. A household here earns £59K a year before tax, on average.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
At the census, 86% of people in Slough called their health good or very good, close to Berkshire’s towns (87%) and above England’s towns (82%). 16 GP practices serve the town; 70% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Men in Slough can expect to live to 77.8, women to 82.4 (2019–23).
| Census 2021 | Slough | Berkshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 86% | 87% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.7% | 3.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 12% | 13% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · 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 and early deaths.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 8 of them, Grade I 7. Homes built before 1919 account for 6% of the housing. Of Slough’s land, 2% lies in conservation areas, below Berkshire’s towns (25%) and England’s towns (7%) alike.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
People 65 and over make up a tenth of the town, below both Berkshire’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (18%). Line up the people of Slough by age and the one in the middle is 35.3. 35% of residents 16 and over have a degree-level qualification (Berkshire 40%, England 34%).
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Slough | Berkshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 23% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 32% | 29% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 23% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 10% | 15% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 14% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.3% | 4.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Degree level | 35% | 40% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Berkshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
155 listed buildings in Slough, 7 of them Grade I.
Church of St Mary: Photo: Darren Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Godolphin Court Approximately 40 Metres to North of Baylis House (Q.V.): Photo: Slough Borough Council · CC0 · Montem Mound: a motte at Salt Hill, Upton-cum Chalvey: Photo: Nigel Cox · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Slough Station booking hall, booking office and travel centre: Photo: mattbuck ( category ) · CC BY-SA 4.0
132 notable people were born in Slough.
John Frederick William Herschel: Julia Margaret Cameron, Public domain · Armando Broja: @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Matty Cash: Nottingham Forest F.C., CC0 · Fiona May: This image has been extracted from another file, CC BY 2.0 · Lewis Hall: Timmy96, CC0 · Brian McDermott: Jake from Manchester, UK, CC BY 2.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slough | 166,868 | — | C | D | D | C− |
| Eton | 2,461 | 1.6 | — | C+ | B− | A |
| Eton Wick | 2,121 | 1.9 | — | C | C+ | A− |
| Datchet | 4,807 | 2.5 | B | C | C | B− |
| Stoke Poges | 3,920 | 2.5 | A− | C | B | B+ |
| Farnham Common and Farnham Royal | 6,711 | 2.8 | B+ | C | B− | B+ |
| Windsor | 31,569 | 2.9 | B | C | C− | B |
| Iver Heath | 5,150 | 3.7 | B+ | C− | B− | B− |
Eton and Eton Wick have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
A young city. At the 2021 Census, 23% of residents were under 15 and 32% were 25 to 44, against 18% and 27% across England’s towns; only 10% were 65 or over.
GCSE results beat 92% of towns in England, and primary results beat 84% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades D.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
City in Berkshire, England
Slough is a built-up area of 166,868 people, in the Slough council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · 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.