Photo: Robin Stott · CC BY-SA 2.0How Bristol stacks up
Bristol struggles most with shorter healthy lives (64.3 years of healthy life expectancy). Across every subject, Bristol lands 54th (C−). No area records more violent crime per resident: in Bristol, police recorded 57.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
65th of 65D−0/100 Among the areas with the most recorded crime. Both its neighbours, Somerset and Gloucestershire, score higher. No area records more violent crime per resident than Bristol: police recorded 57.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year.
All recorded crime (anti-social behaviour left out): 133 per 1,000 residents a year, the highest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
Bristol 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
58th of 90C+36/100 Results slightly under the middle for England. Bristol’s eleven-year-olds rank 11th lowest in the national tests: 61% reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. Secondary schools pull ahead of primaries here: 11th lowest at eleven, but 21st highest at GCSE. Somerset and Gloucestershire both do better on schools.
At GCSE, pupils average 45.9 on Attainment 8 (21st highest); the grade counts it as much as the primary results.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Bristol 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
94th of 98D−4/100 Cost is the price of living here. It trails both of its neighbours on affordability. Land Registry sales put the typical home at £351,000, or 6.3 years of average household income, against 5.2 across England and Wales. Over five years, typical prices have risen 13%.
Typical sale price: £351,000 (5,056 sales, 10th highest).
Private rent £1,883 a month (2nd highest); Band D council tax £2,714 (2nd highest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
Bristol 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
70th of 98C29/100 Less healthy than most areas. Somerset and Gloucestershire both do better on health. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 64.3 years (men and women averaged), 0.9 years fewer than the England and Wales figure.
Total life expectancy is 80.5 years (20th shortest).
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
Bristol 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
47th of 98B−53/100 Middle of the table on income. The average household income is £55,700 a year. Its claimant rate, 3.6%, ranks 24th highest, while household income ranks 20th highest. Somerset and Gloucestershire both do better on incomes.
Claimant rate: 3.6% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 24th highest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Bristol 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.
Getting about
4th of 98A+97/100 Car-optional living. At the 2021 Census, 38% of people travelling to work went on foot, by bike or by public transport, 12 points above the England and Wales figure. No neighbour beats it on walkability; Somerset comes closest.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 39% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; people working mainly from home left out.
Bristol 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
43rd of 87B−51/100 Typical flood risk. Bristol ranks 28th lowest of 55 areas with figures for flood risk: 1.3% of town homes are in harm’s way. No neighbour beats it on flood risk; Gloucestershire comes closest.
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Bristol 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.
Growth
7th of 98A94/100 Growing fast. Since 2011 it has grown 15.5%, the 9th fastest change of 98 areas. Among its neighbours it does best on growth, with Gloucestershire second.
Since the 2021 Census: +4.9%, 8th fastest.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Bristol has one graded town 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 Bristol compares to its neighbours
Bristol beats every neighbour on getting about, flood risk and growth; on safety, schools and cost of living, every neighbour beats it.
| Bristol | Somerset | Gloucestershire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C− 1754th of 65 | B 5629th of 65 | B+ 6722nd of 65 |
| Safety | D− 065th official | C 2848th official · 26% in top towns | B 5926th official · 28% in top towns |
| Schools | C+ 3637th official | B− 5438th official · 13% in top towns | B 5520th official · 5% in top towns |
| Cost of living | D− 492nd official | D 1082nd official · 0% in top towns | C− 2081st official · 7% in top towns |
| Health | C 2937th official | A 8710th official · 49% in top towns | A 908th official · 50% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | B− 5320th official | A− 8424th official · 28% in top towns | A 9218th official · 37% in top towns |
| Getting about | A+ 974th official | B+ 7340th official · 15% in top towns | C+ 3654th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B− 5128th official | C 2842nd official · 19% in top towns | C 3330th official · 16% in top towns |
| Growth | A 949th official | B+ 6920th official · 20% in top towns | A− 7712th official · 20% in top towns |
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.