Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A village of 1,449 in Cumbria, North West.
Sedbergh has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Its strongest subject is walkability (A+): 42% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its weakest is cost of living (D): median sale £265,000, 5.8 years of area income; rent £816 a month.
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 Sedbergh 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 Sedbergh is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists them inside Sedbergh’s built-up area.
46% 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 Sedbergh.
Children under 15 make up 20%, higher than both Cumbria’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (18%). The age that splits Sedbergh in two is 35.3. Retirement age and beyond: 23% of residents are 65 or older.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Sedbergh | Cumbria | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 15% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 23% | 9.9% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 14% | 23% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 21% | 28% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.8% | 8% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 33% | 28% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Cumbria and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Key Stage 2 results at the one primary school within 3 km: 57% of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Its two schools are listed below. Sedbergh’s one primary and one secondary have 371 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedbergh Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 168 | C |
| Settlebeck SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 203 | B− |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 22% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Sedbergh counts 1.1 jobs per working resident. 43% of commuters travelled under 5 km, below Cumbria’s towns (53%) and close to England’s towns (45%). Among 16 to 64s, 1.2% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026. About 35% of its commuters stay in Sedbergh for work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Of Sedbergh’s land, 58% lies in conservation areas, above Cumbria’s towns (7%) and England’s towns (7%) alike. Its listed buildings include the Church of St Andrew, Grade I. Scaled to its population, that is 366 listed buildings for every 10,000 people here. It counts 53 listed buildings on the national list (Historic England): 1 Grade I, 4 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Social housing holds a fifth of households. Home ownership stands at just over three in five households. 18% rent privately, above Cumbria’s towns (15%) but below England’s towns (21%).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £390,000 | 13 |
| Semi-detached | £276,972 | 18 |
| Terraced | £230,000 | 25 |
| Flat or maisonette | £200,000 | 7 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
84% of people in Sedbergh rate their own health good or very good. At the census, 15% of people here had a disability, below both Cumbria’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (17%). The nearest A&E to Sedbergh is Royal Lancaster Infirmary, 23.1 miles away. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 4.1% of the town.
| Census 2021 | Sedbergh | Cumbria | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 79% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.1% | 6.1% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 15% | 20% | 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.
Violence came to 28.5 per 1,000 residents a year, higher than both Cumbria’s towns (27) and England’s towns (22). Police figures for Sedbergh’s built-up area: 85 crimes and 4 anti-social behaviour reports in the 12 months to August 2026. Of all the crimes, 48% were violence and sexual offences.
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.
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedbergh | 1,449 | — | — | D | C+ | A |
| Kendal | 28,939 | 8.5 | C+ | D | C− | B− |
| Kirkby Lonsdale | 1,965 | 8.6 | — | D− | B+ | A |
| Levens | 1,020 | 11 | — | D− | A+ | A+ |
| Holme | 1,477 | 11 | — | C− | A− | A− |
| Milnthorpe | 1,871 | 12 | — | C− | B− | B |
Kirkby Lonsdale, Levens, Holme 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 15 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Church of St Andrew.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Village in Cumbria, England
Sedbergh is a built-up area of 1,449 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.