Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Population 24,483: a large town in Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland. The average domestic rates bill is £1,244 a year.
Good value, with catches elsewhere. Where it does best is cost of living: the median home sold for £180,100, 3.5 years of area income. Coleraine ranks #5 of 7 in Causeway Coast and Glens and #53 of 63 in Northern Ireland, with a B− overall. It comes out better than 53% of UK towns. Fewer journeys need a car: on the way to work, 18% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Its weakest is health: men here can expect to live to 77.7, women to 81.8.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy, ONS.
This town's Cost Grade uses house prices and the domestic rates bill: Northern Ireland has no council tax, and no rents are published for its council areas. This town's Health Grade uses NISRA's life expectancy for its district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. Healthy life expectancy and the early-death and hospital measures English towns use aren't published for small areas in Northern Ireland. This town's School Grade uses GCSE results at the post-primary schools its children travel to, grammar and non-grammar, compared with schools across Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland publishes no primary school results. Northern Ireland has no Jobs Grade (no small-area income, claimant or job-access data is published) and no Hazards Grade (its flood maps aren't open data).
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Coleraine is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 2 things Coleraine does most differently from other towns.
The Historic Environment Division lists 106 buildings inside Coleraine’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade.
Explore the history →106 listed buildings in Coleraine, 1 of them Grade I.
St Patrick's Church: Photo: Andreas F. Borchert · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anderson Park: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Congregational Church: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · St John's Roman Catholic Church: Photo: UnrealMadrid · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Coleraine.
21% live in social housing, above both Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (17%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). Coleraine is the second cheapest of the 7 towns in Causeway Coast and Glens, at £180,100. Also worth knowing: the owner-occupied share of households is 56%.
NISRA / Land & Property Services ward sale prices and domestic rates · NISRA Census 2021 tenure · OGL · The figure is NISRA’s median sale price for the wards around Coleraine, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Below are two of its 15 schools, each with why it was picked. Between them, eight primaries and four secondaries teach 4,797 pupils in Coleraine.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Irish Society's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 484 | – |
| Coleraine Grammar SchoolLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,026 | C+ |
At the census, 28% of people here had a disability, near Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (28%) and higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (26%). Of the 7 towns in Causeway Coast and Glens, Coleraine has the second-largest share in bad or very bad health: 8.7%. Asked at the census, 75% of residents of Coleraine said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2021 | Coleraine | Causeway Coast and Glens | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 75% | 76% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.7% | 8.4% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 28% | 28% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy among them.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Homes see 12.4 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year. 1,563 crimes and 970 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what the PSNI recorded inside Coleraine’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 38.5 reports per 1,000, above both Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (22.9) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7). Of all the crimes, 51% were violence and sexual offences.
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 NISRA settlement boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 12% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Just over one in ten workers worked mainly from home, lower than both Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (15%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (18%). About 54% of its commuters stay in Coleraine for work.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Coleraine’s listed buildings include Bann Bridge, Bridge St., Grade A. Relative to its size, Coleraine keeps 43 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. It has 2 registered historic parks and gardens.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
People 65 and over make up 19% of the town, near Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (20%) and higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (17%). The middle age in Coleraine is 41.8. 18% of residents are children under 15.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Coleraine | Causeway Coast and Glens | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 18% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 23% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 19% | 20% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 26% | 30% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Causeway Coast and Glens and Northern Ireland: all residents of their settlements · Women and men: whole data zones, which approximate the town’s boundary · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Coleraine. Best known first.
55 notable people were born in Coleraine.
Michelle Fairley: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Maggie O'Farrell: TimDuncan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hannah Scott: National Lottery Good Causes, CC BY 3.0 · Bertie Peacock: Albert Bridge, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Alan Campbell: Joanne from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Andrew Trimble: Stefano Delfrate, CC BY-SA 2.0
Large town in Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland
Coleraine is a settlement of 24,483 people, in the Causeway Coast and Glens council area. TownRatings uses NISRA’s settlements (the 2015 Settlement Development Limits) as Northern Ireland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from NISRA geography and Census 2021
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coleraine | 24,483 | — | B− | A+ | C | D |
| Portstewart | 7,854 | 3.8 | A− | A+ | B+ | C |
| Portrush | 6,150 | 4.5 | B− | A+ | D | C− |
| Ballymoney | 11,048 | 7.3 | B+ | A+ | B | C |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £180,100, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 36th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
About the middle for its size: 53% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C. Burglary was rare, with 28 reports in the year.
Northern Ireland has no council tax: homes pay domestic rates, set on the home’s capital value, and the rates also pay for water. The average bill in Causeway Coast and Glens is about £1,244 a year for 2026–27, against England’s average council tax per home of £1,868. Your own bill depends on your home’s value; check it with Land & Property Services on nidirect.
Sources: NISRA Census 2021, data zones best-fitted to the NISRA Settlement Development Limits 2015 (settlement totals from NISRA where it publishes them) · NISRA / Land & Property Services verified residential sales by ward, 2005 to 2024, new and existing dwellings (medians; the 2022 to 2024 headline brought to early-2025 prices with the LPS house price index, which runs to 2026) · Land & Property Services domestic rates paid by council, 2025-26, and Department of Finance rate poundages 2026-27 · data.police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), 36 months to August 2026, points inside the settlement boundary · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and NISRA Census 2021 general health and disability, adjusted for age · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils · Department of Education examination performance at post-primary schools 2024/25 and school-level enrolment data 2025/26 · 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.