Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 14,284 residents, it is a town in Clwyd, Wales.
Middle of the road on almost everything. Buying a home costs less than in most towns (B): homes sell for a median £235,000, about 5.1 times local household income. Hawarden grades B overall, better than 57% of UK towns. That places it #7 of 39 in Clwyd. Natural hazards weigh more here: 0.7% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. The rest of its grades are middling: B− for safety, C+ for health, B− for jobs & income and C+ for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Natural Resources Wales · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · health, Census 2021 (the grade adjusts for age) · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021.
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 2 things Hawarden 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 Hawarden is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists 96 buildings inside Hawarden’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 2 scheduled monuments.
16% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 4 old photos and postcards going back to 1773.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Hawarden.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Homes from before 1919 make up 16% of the total. Hawarden’s listed buildings include St Deiniol's Library, Grade I. It has 2 scheduled monuments.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Two of them are shown below, each with the reason. Some 2,301 pupils attend Hawarden’s five primaries and one secondary.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawarden Village Voluntary Aided C.I.W. PrimaryLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 386 | – |
| Hawarden High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,161 | – |
10% live in social housing, below Clwyd’s towns (16%) and Wales’s towns (18%) alike. The private rented sector houses 14% of households. From September 2023 to August 2026, 546 homes sold inside Hawarden’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £235,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £335,000 | 227 |
| Semi-detached | £215,000 | 175 |
| Terraced | £153,000 | 99 |
| Flat or maisonette | £120,000 | 45 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 26% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
85% of commuters drove, above Clwyd’s towns (83%) and Wales’s towns (81%) alike. Among 16 to 64s, 2.3% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026. There are 1.8 jobs in Hawarden for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Just over four fifths of Hawarden’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, above Clwyd’s towns (79%) and Wales’s towns (78%) alike. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 5.2% of the town. The nearest A&E to Hawarden is The Countess of Chester Hospital, 5.8 miles away. 2 GP practices serve the town.
| Census 2021 | Hawarden | Clwyd | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 79% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.2% | 6.5% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 18% | 22% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · 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.
Violence and sexual offences were 54% of the crimes. Homes saw 7.8 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, below both Clwyd’s towns (10.7) and Wales’s towns (10.7). The 12 months to August 2026 brought 618 recorded crimes inside Hawarden’s built-up area, and 176 reports of anti-social behaviour. Also worth knowing: among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Hawarden has less crime per resident than 83% of them.
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.
Half the people of Hawarden are older than 46.8. Those 65 and older account for nearly a quarter of residents. Degrees are held by 31% of adults, higher than Clwyd’s towns (29%) and near Wales’s towns (31%).
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Hawarden | Clwyd | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 9.4% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 23% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 20% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.4% | 6.5% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 31% | 29% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Clwyd and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Hawarden. Best known first.
CastleOld Hawarden Castle100 m outside town, to the southeast
Castle · CadwCastell Ewloe1.3 km outside town, to the northwest
CastleHawarden Castle200 m outside town, to the southeast
Historic housePlas Teg4.4 km outside town, to the southMuseumMuseumBuckley Library1 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
96 listed buildings in Hawarden, 1 of them Grade I.
St Deiniol's Library: Photo: Llywelyn2000 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Parish Church of St Deinol: Photo: Sue Adair · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Correction House: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · The Glynne Arms PH: Photo: Gammock · CC BY-SA 4.0
15 notable people were born in Hawarden.
Gary Speed: Biser Todorov, CC BY 4.0 · Marc Limbert: Tomoslewisbangor, CC BY 3.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawarden | 14,284 | — | B | B | B− | C+ |
| Aston | 2,847 | 0.7 | A− | B | B+ | B |
| Shotton | 6,500 | 1.5 | C | A− | D | D |
| Garden City | 2,427 | 2.2 | — | B− | D− | D |
| Buckley | 13,562 | 2.3 | B− | B+ | C+ | C |
| Connah's Quay | 16,768 | 2.3 | C+ | B+ | C | C |
| Broughton | 6,532 | 2.4 | B+ | B | B | C+ |
| Penyffordd | 3,822 | 2.6 | A | C+ | A | A+ |
Garden City has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
96 on Cadw’s list, 1 of them Grade I and 2 Grade II*. That is 2.8 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is St Deiniol's Library. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on Natural Resources Wales’s flood risk service.
Town in Clwyd, Wales
Hawarden is a built-up area of 14,284 people, in the Flintshire 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.