Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 3,737 residents, it is a town in Cambridgeshire, East of England. Secondary school results beat 94% of towns in England.
Strong across the board. With an A overall, Fulbourn is better than 92% of UK towns and ranks #14 of 50 in Cambridgeshire. Households here earn well: the mean household earns £67,365 a year. At a median £549,000, a home costs 7.6 times the yearly income of households in the South Cambridgeshire council area. Getting around on foot or by bus is easy: a quarter of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its other grades sit near the middle: B for safety and B for health.
Figures: income and life expectancy, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026.
The 3 things Fulbourn 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 Fulbourn is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 47 buildings inside Fulbourn’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade II*.
10% 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 1910.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Fulbourn. Best known first.
MuseumMuseum of Zoology4.9 km outside town, to the west · 139K visitors a year (2023)
GardenCambridge University Botanic Garden4 km outside town, to the west
Abbey or priory · National TrustAnglesey Abbey4.6 km outside town, to the north
MuseumWhipple Museum of the History Of Science4.9 km outside town, to the west
MuseumSedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences4.8 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Fulbourn.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 42% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Unemployment benefit claims came to 1.4% of 16 to 64s in 2026, below Cambridgeshire’s towns (2.1%) and England’s towns (2.3%) alike. At the census, just over two in five workers worked mainly from home. Work in town: 6% of resident commuters. There are 0.8 jobs in Fulbourn for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Attainment 8 at the 3 secondary schools within 3 km averages 55.3, and 64% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. Below is one of its 2 schools, and why it was picked. 63% of pupils at the 14 primary schools within 3 km met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fulbourn Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 254 | A− |
Seeing a GP means leaving Fulbourn: the nearest practice is 1.6 miles away. The nearest A&E to Fulbourn is Addenbrooke's and the Rosie Hospitals, 3.2 miles away. 84% of the town’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, close to Cambridgeshire’s towns (84%) and above England’s towns (82%).
| Census 2021 | Fulbourn | Cambridgeshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 84% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.5% | 4.4% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 17% | 16% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses 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.
Relative to its size, Fulbourn keeps 126 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, above both Cambridgeshire’s towns (82) and England’s towns (39). Before 1919: that is when 10% of homes were built. Grade II* covers 2 of them.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Burglary and damage add up to 11 per 1,000 residents each year. In the 12 months to August 2026, police logged 168 crimes and 29 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Fulbourn’s built-up area. Violence and sexual offences were 45% of the crimes.
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.
Home ownership stands at just over two thirds of households. Behind the median of £549,000: 169 standard sales inside Fulbourn’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026. Private rents average £1,408 a month across the South Cambridgeshire council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £725,000 | 83 |
| Semi-detached | £445,000 | 57 |
| Terraced | £440,000 | 21 |
| Flat or maisonette | £272,500 | 8 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Children under 15 make up 20% of residents. The 15-to-24 age group: 8.1%, below both Cambridgeshire’s towns (12%) and England’s towns (12%). People 65 and over make up nearly a quarter of the town. At 43.6, the median resident of Fulbourn sits in the middle of the age range.
53% women, 47% men
About 88 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Fulbourn | Cambridgeshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.1% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 17% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 14% | 17% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.1% | 5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 12% | 16% | 17% |
| Degree level | 46% | 37% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Cambridgeshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
47 listed buildings in Fulbourn.
Church of St Vigor: Photo: Cmglee · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Highfield House: Photo: Smb1001 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Six Bells Public House: Photo: sps1955 · CC BY 2.0 · The Maltings Buildings Immediately South of Malsters Cottage: Photo: sps1955 · 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fulbourn | 3,737 | — | A | B− | B | B |
| Bottisham | 1,990 | 3.4 | — | B− | A− | B |
| Cambridge | 152,742 | 3.6 | B+ | C− | C− | B+ |
| Great Shelford and Stapleford | 6,159 | 3.9 | A+ | C+ | A | A+ |
| Sawston | 7,270 | 4.5 | A− | B+ | B | B− |
| Milton | 4,150 | 4.8 | A+ | B+ | B | A+ |
| Hauxton | 1,322 | 5.4 | — | B− | A | A+ |
| Balsham | 1,625 | 5.6 | — | B+ | A | A+ |
Bottisham, Hauxton and Balsham have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 5.2 times the typical UK town for its size.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £549,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £272,500, terraced houses £440,000, semi-detached houses £445,000 and detached houses £725,000. Household incomes are higher than in 84% of UK towns, so cost of living still grades B−.
Primary results are closer to the middle, beating 56%. Fulbourn has 2 state schools; places are handled by Cambridgeshire council.
Town in Cambridgeshire, England
Fulbourn is a built-up area of 3,737 people, in the South 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.