Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 2,290 residents, it is a village in Cumbria, North West. 26% of residents are 65 or over.
Bowness-on-Windermere is easy to get around without a car: 37% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Add health to its strengths: life expectancy is 81 for men and 87.6 for women. The weak point is cost of living: homes sell for a median £400,000, about 8.8 times local household income. Safety lags: 69.6 violent and sexual offences and 16 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Set beside UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, its crime per resident is higher than in 98%.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026. Bowness-on-Windermere is graded on each subject, but towns under 2,500 get no overall grade.
ONS publishes one rent for all of Westmorland and Furness, so this town's Cost Grade uses house prices and council tax only.
The 3 things Bowness-on-Windermere 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 Bowness-on-Windermere is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Bowness-on-Windermere is graded on each subject, but towns under 2,500 get no overall grade.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 26 buildings inside Bowness-on-Windermere’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
32% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 2 old photos and postcards going back to 1903.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Bowness-on-Windermere. Best known first.
MuseumWindermere Jettyin town
Historic house · National TrustHill Top2.8 km outside town, to the west
Castle · National TrustWray Castle4.2 km outside town, to the northwest
Historic house · National TrustTownend4.6 km outside town, to the north
GardenHolehird Gardens3.2 km outside town, to the north
Historic houseBlackwell1 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Bowness-on-Windermere.
56% of households own their home, below Cumbria’s towns (68%) and England’s towns (61%) alike. Social renters account for 13% of households. Private rents average £816 a month across the Westmorland and Furness council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £625,000 | 33 |
| Semi-detached | £385,000 | 15 |
| Terraced | £385,900 | 16 |
| Flat or maisonette | £260,000 | 41 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Secondary results at the one secondary school within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 42.1, with 37% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. There is one school here; it is shown below. 56% of pupils at the 3 primary schools within 3 km met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goodly Dale Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 77 | B+ |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 28% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Households had £45K a year before tax, near Cumbria’s towns (£45K) and lower than England’s towns (£55K). The car carried just over three in five commuters at the census. Also worth knowing: about 32% of its commuters stay in Bowness-on-Windermere for work. For 55% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
There were 11.2 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above both Cumbria’s towns (3.1) and England’s towns (7.8). Reported offences in Bowness-on-Windermere came to 294 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 16. Violence and sexual offences made up nearly three fifths of the total.
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.
People 65 and over make up just over a quarter of the town. The 15-to-24 age group: 8.3%, below both Cumbria’s towns (9.9%) and England’s towns (12%). Line up the people of Bowness-on-Windermere by age and the one in the middle is 48.8. Graduates make up 40% of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Bowness-on-Windermere | Cumbria | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 11% | 15% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.3% | 9.9% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 23% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 25% |
| 65+ | 26% | 23% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.8% | 8% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 40% | 28% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Cumbria and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Men in Bowness-on-Windermere can expect to live to 81, women to 87.6 (2019–23). 84% of people in Bowness-on-Windermere rate their own health good or very good. At the census, 4.3% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, below Cumbria’s towns (6.1%) and England’s towns (5.2%) alike. One GP practice serves the town; 97% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Bowness-on-Windermere | Cumbria | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 79% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.3% | 6.1% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 14% | 20% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, 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 and early deaths among them.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Bowness-on-Windermere counts 26 listed buildings on the national list (Historic England): 1 Grade I, 1 Grade II*. Its listed buildings include the Parish Church of St Martin, Grade I. For its size, Bowness-on-Windermere has 114 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. Conservation areas cover 17% of the town’s land, above both Cumbria’s towns (7%) and England’s towns (7%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowness-on-Windermere | 2,290 | — | — | D− | D− | A |
| Windermere | 4,819 | 0.9 | C | D− | C | A− |
| Staveley | 1,466 | 4 | — | D− | A− | A |
| Ambleside | 2,624 | 5 | B− | D− | C+ | B+ |
| Kendal | 28,939 | 7.5 | C+ | D | C− | B− |
| Levens | 1,020 | 8.4 | — | D− | A+ | A+ |
| Milnthorpe | 1,871 | 11 | — | C− | B− | B |
Staveley, Levens and Milnthorpe have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 4.7 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Parish Church of St Martin.
GCSE results trail 78% of towns in England, and primary results trail 77% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by Cumbria council.
Village in Cumbria, England
Bowness-on-Windermere is a built-up area of 2,290 people, in the South Lakeland 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.