Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
16% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. A large town in Cheshire, North West, home to 65,425 people.
Ellesmere Port grades low on several counts. The town grades D overall, better than 14% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #44 of 46 in Cheshire. Where it falls short is schools: primary results beat 19% of towns in England; secondary results beat 4% of towns in England. Health is weaker too (C−): men here can expect to live to 77.5, women to 82.4. Its strongest is cost of living: a typical home costs £202,000 and rent runs £991 a month. Its other grades sit near the middle: B for walkability and B for hazard risk.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 2 things Ellesmere Port 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 Ellesmere Port is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 59 buildings inside Ellesmere Port’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
7% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ellesmere Port.
St Mary of The Angels Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy’s results beat nearly nine in ten schools in England like it. Of its 26 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. Attainment 8 at the town’s 3 secondary schools averages 37.7, and 25% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodlands Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 533 | C− |
| The Whitby High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,398 | C− |
| St Mary of The Angels Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary AcademyTop results in townPrimary | Primary | – | A |
At the census, four fifths of people in Ellesmere Port called their health good or very good, below both Cheshire’s towns (82%) and England’s towns (82%). 6.4% of residents report bad or very bad health. 8 GP practices serve the town; 78% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Ellesmere Port | Cheshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 82% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.4% | 5.4% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 21% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Burglary and damage came to 10.8 per 1,000 residents a year, above Cheshire’s towns (5.7) and England’s towns (9.4) alike. Ellesmere Port logged 5,771 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 581 complaints of anti-social conduct. Violence and sexual offences accounted for 48% of recorded crime.
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.
19% live in social housing, higher than both Cheshire’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). 2,323 standard sales inside Ellesmere Port’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £202,000. Home ownership stands at 65% of households.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £316,500 | 542 |
| Semi-detached | £205,000 | 1,108 |
| Terraced | £152,500 | 537 |
| Flat or maisonette | £105,000 | 136 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Of Ellesmere Port’s land, 100% lies in conservation areas, near Cheshire’s towns (100%) and higher than England’s towns (7%). Its listed buildings include the Church of St Mary, Grade I. Grade II* covers 5 of them, Grade I 1.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 21% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
About 37% of its commuters stay in Ellesmere Port for work. At the census, just over a fifth of workers worked mainly from home. This Cheshire town counts 0.9 jobs per working resident. Household income came to £46K a year before tax, lower than both Cheshire’s towns (£56K) and England’s towns (£55K).
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The median resident of Ellesmere Port is 40.9 years old. Just over one in ten residents are 15 to 24, close to Cheshire’s towns (10%) and below England’s towns (12%). The under-15s are 18% of the population here.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Ellesmere Port | Cheshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 18% | 21% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 17% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.1% | 5.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 26% | 34% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Cheshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Ellesmere Port. Best known first.
AquariumBlue Planet Aquariumin town
MuseumNational Waterways Museum Ellesmere Portin town
ZooChester Zoo3.2 km outside town, to the south
Historic house · National TrustSpeke Hall4.7 km outside town, to the north
Fort · National TrustHelsby Hillfort3.7 km outside town, to the eastZooZooPelican Covein townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
59 listed buildings in Ellesmere Port, 1 of them Grade I.
Ellesmere Port Railway Station: Photo: S. Thomson · Public domain · Central General Service Hangar (Building 17), Hooton Park Aerodrome: Photo: Hootonparktrust · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Shropshire Union Canal Powell's Bridge: Photo: John S Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Queens Cinema: Photo: Sue Adair · CC BY-SA 2.0
39 notable people were born in Ellesmere Port.
Joe Mercer: Dr. David France, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Stan Cullis: DAVE ROWLEY, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ian Bowyer: The original uploader was Holdenbuckley at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Beverley Hughes: ©House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0 · Gideon Davies: Gjd-wicki, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellesmere Port | 65,425 | — | D | B+ | C− | C− |
| Moston | 1,099 | 3.6 | — | C | B+ | B− |
| Saughall | 2,655 | 3.8 | B− | C | A− | B− |
| Willaston (Cheshire West and Chester) | 2,472 | 3.8 | — | C− | A+ | A |
| Elton | 3,293 | 4.1 | B+ | B+ | B | B− |
| Mickle Trafford | 1,840 | 5 | — | C− | A+ | B |
| Bebington | 57,607 | 5.6 | B− | C | B− | C |
| Garden City | 2,427 | 5.6 | — | B− | D− | D |
Moston, Willaston (Cheshire West and Chester), Mickle Trafford and Garden City have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
About the middle for its size: 35% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades C−.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £202,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £105,000, terraced houses £152,500, semi-detached houses £205,000 and detached houses £316,500.
Large town in Cheshire, England
Ellesmere Port is a built-up area of 65,425 people, in the Cheshire West and Chester 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.