Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Over-65s are 23% of the population. The town, home to 6,150 people, lies in Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland.
Police record more crime here than in most towns: 36.9 violent or sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, plus 22 home and vehicle crimes. Against UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, it has more crime per resident than 90%. With a B− overall, Portrush is better than 48% of UK towns and ranks #55 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Homes are affordable (A+): homes sell for a median £251,300, about 4.9 times local household income. The rest of its grades are middling: C+ for schools and B for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · commuting, Census 2021.
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 Portrush is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Portrush does most differently from other towns.
The Historic Environment Division lists 46 buildings inside Portrush’s settlement, 3 of them in the second grade, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →46 listed buildings in Portrush.
Northern Bank: Photo: Willie Duffin · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Holy Trinity Parish Church: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Traks Niteclub: Photo: Greentreetown · CC BY-SA 4.0 · War Memorial: Photo: Greentreetown · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Portrush.
Social housing holds 14% of households, lower than both Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (17%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). Only one of the 7 towns in Causeway Coast and Glens costs more to buy into than Portrush, whose median sale is £251,300. 62% of households are owner-occupiers.
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 Portrush, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Some 609 pupils attend Portrush’s three primaries. Of its 3 schools, one is shown below, with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill Strand Integrated Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 413 | – |
PSNI figures for Portrush’s settlement: 466 crimes and 251 anti-social behaviour reports in the 12 months to August 2026. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 42.3 reports per 1,000, higher than both Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (22.9) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7). Of all the crimes, 43% 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.
Ages in Portrush split evenly at 48.1: half are older, half younger. People 65 and over make up 23% of the town, above Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (20%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (17%) alike. Those aged 15 to 24 account for one in ten residents.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Portrush | Causeway Coast and Glens | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 18% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 23% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 31% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 23% | 20% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 36% | 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
Life expectancy here is 83.6 for women and 78.6 for men (2022–24). 26% of residents in Portrush live with a disability. At the census, 77% of people in Portrush called their health good or very good, about level with Northern Ireland’s towns (77%) and above Causeway Coast and Glens’ towns (76%).
| Census 2021 | Portrush | Causeway Coast and Glens | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 76% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.4% | 8.4% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 26% | 28% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade B+ covers 3 of them. Scaled to its population, that is 75 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in Portrush. Also worth knowing: the national list protects one ancient monument in the town.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 20% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
At the census, 83% of commuters went by car. Of the commuters living in Portrush, 21% work in the town itself. The census counted a fifth of workers working mainly from home.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Portrush. Best known first.
Theme parkCurry's Fun Parkin town
CastleDunluce Castle3.9 km outside town, to the eastMuseumMuseumCoastal Zonein townTheme parkTheme parkKiddieLand Amusementsin townWater parkWater parkWaterworldin townZooZooNorth Coast Alpacas1.9 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
5 notable people were born in Portrush.
Graeme McDowell: Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0
Town in Causeway Coast and Glens, Northern Ireland
Portrush is a settlement of 6,150 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portrush | 6,150 | — | B− | A+ | D | C− |
| Portstewart | 7,854 | 2.7 | A− | A+ | B+ | C |
| Coleraine | 24,483 | 4.5 | B− | A+ | C | D |
| Ballymoney | 11,048 | 10 | B+ | A+ | B | C |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 3.1 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
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.