Photo: Robert Graham · CC BY-SA 2.0How County Durham stacks up
Only three areas record more violent crime per resident: in County Durham, police recorded 47.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year. Its overall score of 34 ranks 43rd, a C. It stands out for little flood risk.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
63rd of 65D−3/100 Crime is a real weak spot. Violent crime runs at 47.3 offences per 1,000 residents a year, the 4th highest rate of 65 areas with police.uk figures. Darlington and Hartlepool weigh on the town measure; 63% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places. It trails all of its neighbours on safety.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 110 per 1,000 a year (3rd highest).
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Where most people live, crime runs higher
Its safest towns are Wynyard (#194), Burnopfield (#288) and Witton Gilbert (#319), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Stockton-on-Tees, Newton Aycliffe and Bishop Auckland, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| County Durham | 6% | 63% |
Where crimes are counted
Each crime on police.uk is pinned to a nearby street or public place, not an address; both figures count crimes where those points fall. The county-wide rate takes in town centres, stations and shopping streets, where many offences are recorded but few people live. Our town grades leave shop theft and other town-centre crime out and count violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage, the crimes that reach people at home.
Schools
35th of 90B62/100 Somewhat above-average schools. 64% of pupils leave primary school at the expected standard (11th highest), and GCSE pupils average an Attainment 8 score of 45.1 (15th lowest). Primary schools do better than secondaries here: 11th highest at eleven, 15th lowest at GCSE. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Barnard Castle its best at #33 of 2,331.
Attainment 8 at GCSE: 45.1 (15th lowest), weighed equally with the primary results.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Cost of living
20th of 98A−80/100 Consistently affordable. Almost no one here lives in a bottom-quarter town; Stockton-on-Tees and Billingham are typical. Homes cost 3.5 times what the average household takes in a year, 33% below the England and Wales figure: a typical sale of £154,000 against income of £43,800. It leads its neighbours on affordability, ahead of Tyne and Wear.
Typical sale price: £154,000 (9,587 sales, 7th lowest).
Private rent £664 a month (6th lowest); Band D council tax £2,594 (9th highest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Health
89th of 98D9/100 Among the least healthy areas. Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees weigh on the town measure; 60% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places. People here can expect 61.8 years in good health, against 65.2 across England and Wales (6th shortest of 55 areas with figures). Tyne and Wear, North Yorkshire and Northumberland all do better on health.
Life expectancy at birth: 79.2 years, 6th shortest.
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Jobs & income
64th of 98C+35/100 Incomes a notch below average. At £43,800 a year, household incomes here are the 19th lowest of 98 areas. 59% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 3.4% of working-age adults (35th highest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Measure: our Jobs & income grade: household income. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,156 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Getting about
50th of 98B−49/100 About average without a car. About 2 in 10 commuters leave the car at home here (28th lowest). Barnard Castle is the exception, #80 of 2,515; almost no one else lives in a top-quarter town. It trails all of its neighbours on walkability.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 23% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Flood risk
12th of 87A87/100 Low flood risk, town after town. Fewer than one in 100 homes in its towns face a real risk of flooding from rivers or the sea (6th lowest). Nearly every town does well here, Burnopfield and Dipton among them.
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 52 County Durham towns.
Growth
63rd of 98C+36/100 Growing a little slower than average. Since 2011 it has grown 5.6%, the 43rd slowest change of 98 areas. 64% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Darlington and Hartlepool.
Since the 2021 Census: +3.8%, 22nd fastest.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 30 County Durham towns. Covers 87% of residents of County Durham’s graded towns.
How County Durham compares to its neighbours
Against Tyne and Wear, North Yorkshire, Northumberland and Cumbria, County Durham leads on cost of living but trails on safety, health and getting about.
| County Durham | Tyne and Wear | North Yorkshire | Northumberland | Cumbria | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C 3443rd of 65 | C+ 4139th of 65 | A− 7517th of 65 | B− 5232nd of 65 | D 1158th of 65 |
| Safety | D− 362nd official · 6% in top towns | C 2539th official · 14% in top towns | B− 5343rd official · 34% in top towns | B 5516th official · 18% in top towns | C− 1946th official · 15% in top towns |
| Schools | B 6211th official · 16% in top towns | B 584th official · 10% in top towns | B+ 6919th official · 17% in top towns | C 3338th official · 12% in top towns | D− 345th official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | A− 805th official · 87% in top towns | B 6416th official · 39% in top towns | B− 4556th official · 52% in top towns | B 6240th official · 78% in top towns | C 3246th official · 0% in top towns |
| Health | D 950th official · 5% in top towns | D 1052nd official · 6% in top towns | B+ 7322nd official · 34% in top towns | B− 4934th official · 19% in top towns | B 6130th official · 23% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C+ 3580th official · 10% in top towns | C− 1665th official · 6% in top towns | A− 8043rd official · 37% in top towns | C+ 3757th official · 4% in top towns | C− 2086th official · 0% in top towns |
| Getting about | B− 4971st official · 1% in top towns | A 8810th official · 26% in top towns | A− 7733rd official · 24% in top towns | B 5966th official · 5% in top towns | B+ 7233rd official · 8% in top towns |
| Flood risk | A 876th official · 50% in top towns | A+ 981st official · 58% in top towns | C 2746th official · 21% in top towns | A 916th official · 58% in top towns | D− 349th official · 3% in top towns |
| Growth | C+ 3656th official · 5% in top towns | C+ 4150th official · 4% in top towns | B− 5151st official · 9% in top towns | C− 2461st official · 0% in top towns | C 2978th official · 6% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.