Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 8,531 residents, it is a town in Clwyd, Wales. Mortgage-free owners make up 49% of households.
More weak spots than strong ones. Work and incomes lag (D): households earn a mean £39,092 a year, and 3.1% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Abergele’s overall grade, D, puts it better than 6% of UK towns. The median home sold for £222,500, 5.1 times what households in the Conwy council area earn in a year. It also trails on safety — 39.3 violent and sexual offences and 11.6 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, it has less crime per resident than 17%. The rest of its grades are middling: B− for walkability and C+ for hazard risk.
Figures: income, ONS · claimants, DWP · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Natural Resources Wales.
This town's Health Grade uses ONS's small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for 2019 to 2023, and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. English towns' grades also use OHID's small-area early deaths, hospital admissions and child obesity, which OHID publishes for England only.
The 3 things Abergele does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Wales), ordered by how far Abergele is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists 26 buildings inside Abergele’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade II*, and 1 scheduled monument.
9% 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 1857.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Abergele.
The median resident of Abergele is 52.2 years old. Aged 15 to 24: 7.9% of residents. Degrees are held by 31% of adults, higher than Clwyd’s towns (29%) and near Wales’s towns (31%).
53% women, 47% men
About 88 men for every 100 women. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Abergele | Clwyd | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 7.9% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 23% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 33% | 23% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 21% | 20% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.3% | 6.5% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 31% | 29% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Clwyd and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Between them, one primary and one secondary teach 1,193 pupils in Abergele. Two of them are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ysgol Glan MorfaLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 247 | – |
| Ysgol Emrys Ap IwanLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 946 | – |
Violence and sexual offences accounted for 54% of recorded crime. In the 12 months to August 2026, police logged 596 crimes and 123 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Abergele’s built-up area. There were 16.7 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Clwyd’s towns (15) and Wales’s towns (10.4) alike.
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.
At the census, 76% of people in Abergele called their health good or very good, below Clwyd’s towns (79%) and Wales’s towns (78%) alike. Men in Abergele can expect to live to 77.8, women to 82.6 (2019–23). One GP practice serves the town.
| Census 2021 | Abergele | Clwyd | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.8% | 6.5% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 25% | 22% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · These shares come straight from the census, without allowing for age, and young towns benefit; the Health Grade instead weighs age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy.
Social housing holds just over one in ten households, lower than both Clwyd’s towns (16%) and Wales’s towns (18%). 15% of households are private tenants. Private rents average £796 a month across the Conwy council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £290,000 | 232 |
| Semi-detached | £195,000 | 150 |
| Terraced | £153,000 | 57 |
| Flat or maisonette | £117,500 | 28 |
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.
Grade II* covers 2 of them. Homes from before 1919 make up 9% of the total, below Clwyd’s towns (18%) and Wales’s towns (27%) alike. Abergele counts 26 listed buildings on the national list (Cadw): 2 Grade II*.
Cadw 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.
13% of commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, lower than both Clwyd’s towns (15%) and Wales’s towns (16%). The car carried 85% of commuters at the census. Jobs per working resident: 0.7.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Abergele. Best known first.
CastleGwrych Castle700 m outside town, to the westTheme parkTheme parkKnightly's Fun Park2.7 km outside town, to the northeastTheme parkTheme parkTir Prince Funland Amusement Park3.3 km outside town, to the northeastCastleCastleBrynffanigl Castle2.8 km outside town, to the southwestCastleCastleGwyrch Castle Northern Towers1.2 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
26 listed buildings in Abergele.
Church of St Michael: Photo: Llywelyn2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · King's Lodge, also known as Abergele Lodge: Photo: Gary Bealr · CC BY-SA 4.0 · The Castle, Y Castell: Photo: David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Telephone Call-box outside the Harp Inn: Photo: Alek Haunt · CC BY-SA 4.0
4 notable people were born in Abergele.
David Vaughan: Wonker from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0 · Billy Sass-Davies: Poolie22, CC0 · Emrys ap Iwan: The original uploader was Anatiomaros at Welsh Wikipedia., Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abergele | 8,531 | — | D | C+ | C− | C− |
| Pensarn | 1,329 | 0.9 | — | B | D− | D |
| Llanddulas | 1,097 | 2.4 | — | C+ | C− | C− |
| Mynydd Marian | 1,351 | 2.9 | — | B− | B | C |
| Kinmel Bay | 9,016 | 2.9 | D− | B− | D− | D− |
| Bodelwyddan | 1,785 | 3.4 | — | B | D− | C |
| Rhyl | 26,982 | 5.2 | D | A− | D− | D− |
| Rhuddlan | 3,791 | 5.2 | C+ | B+ | C | C+ |
Pensarn, Llanddulas, Mynydd Marian and Bodelwyddan have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £222,500, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £117,500, terraced houses £153,000, semi-detached houses £195,000 and detached houses £290,000.
Town in Clwyd, Wales
Abergele is a built-up area of 8,531 people, in the Conwy 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) · Cadw listed buildings, scheduled monuments and registered historic parks and gardens via DataMapWales, 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.