Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town in Cambridgeshire, East of England, home to 19,185 people.
Where it does best is walkability — 29% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Overall, Ely earns an A, better than 92% of UK towns. The ranking puts it #13 of 50 in Cambridgeshire. A median £360,000 buys a home here, 6 times what households in the East Cambridgeshire council area earn in a year. Health outcomes beat most towns (A−): life expectancy 82.2 for men, 86.3 for women. Elsewhere it is close to typical: C+ for safety and B− for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 3 things Ely 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 Ely is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 191 buildings inside Ely’s built-up area, 25 of them Grade I, and 3 scheduled monuments.
12% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Ely. Best known first.
CathedralEly Cathedralin town
Historic houseOliver Cromwell's Housein town
MuseumThe Stained Glass Museumin town
MuseumPrickwillow Museum4.1 km outside town, to the eastMuseumMuseumEly Museumin townMuseumMuseumRAF Witchford and RAF Mepal Museum800 m outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ely.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 41% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
A household here earns £65K a year before tax, on average. 41% of workers worked mainly from home, above both Cambridgeshire’s towns (34%) and England’s towns (31%). For nearly two in five commuters, work was under 5 km away. Of the commuters living in Ely, 36% work in the town itself.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
GCSE results at the 2 secondary schools within 3 km: 52% of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 49.9. Of its 7 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. 63% of pupils at the town’s 4 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lantern Community Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 448 | B− |
| Ely CollegeLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,635 | A− |
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 3.8% of the town. 2 GP practices serve the town; 87% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Ely is Addenbrooke's and the Rosie Hospitals, 16.6 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Ely | Cambridgeshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 84% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.8% | 4.4% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 16% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Those 65 and older account for 20% of residents. 9.6% of the population is aged 15 to 24, below Cambridgeshire’s towns (12%) and England’s towns (12%) alike. Line up the people of Ely by age and the one in the middle is 42.7.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Ely | Cambridgeshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.6% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 20% | 17% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 14% | 17% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.7% | 5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Degree level | 44% | 37% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Cambridgeshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Ely has 100 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents. Conservation areas cover 28% of the town’s land, higher than both Cambridgeshire’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (7%). Homes from before 1919 make up 12% of the total.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Private rents average £1,038 a month across the East Cambridgeshire council area. 15% live in social housing, lower than both Cambridgeshire’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). The £360,000 median rests on 927 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £475,000 | 277 |
| Semi-detached | £370,000 | 252 |
| Terraced | £307,867 | 298 |
| Flat or maisonette | £215,000 | 100 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
1,177 crimes and 372 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what police recorded inside Ely’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026. Homes saw 11.3 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, above Cambridgeshire’s towns (9) and England’s towns (9.4) alike. Violence and sexual offences made up 40% of the total. Among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Ely has less crime per resident than 70% of them.
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.
191 listed buildings in Ely, 25 of them Grade I.
Bishop's Palace Bishop's Palace (The Palace School): Photo: Harry Mitchell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cellarers House (Boarding House of King's School): Photo: Magnus Manske · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Parsons' Almshouses: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Old Fire Engine House: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0
45 notable people were born in Ely.
Guy Pearce: LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Andrew Eldritch: Mendor, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jack Hulbert: Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Clive Woodward: David Sedlecký, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Stephen Conroy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8907248@N08/, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Tom Miller: Mattythewhite, CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ely | 19,185 | — | A | B+ | C+ | A− |
| Little Downham | 1,234 | 2.2 | — | A | A | B+ |
| Witchford | 2,386 | 2.7 | — | A− | C+ | B+ |
| Littleport | 9,170 | 4 | C | A | C | C |
| Stretham | 2,070 | 4.2 | — | B+ | B+ | B+ |
| Soham | 10,609 | 5.5 | B+ | A | B− | C+ |
| Haddenham | 3,050 | 5.8 | B+ | A− | B+ | B+ |
| Sutton | 3,880 | 6.1 | B+ | A | B+ | B+ |
Little Downham, Witchford and Stretham have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 4.1 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Almonry, Sacrists Hall, Gate and Goldsmiths Tower the Almonry. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C+.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £360,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £215,000, terraced houses £307,867, semi-detached houses £370,000 and detached houses £475,000. Household incomes are higher than in 79% of UK towns, so cost of living still grades B+.
Town in Cambridgeshire, England
Ely is a built-up area of 19,185 people, in the East Cambridgeshire 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.