Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The average domestic rates bill is £1,121 a year. It is a town of 2,980 residents in Derry City and Strabane, Northern Ireland.
Castlederg’s weakest is health — life expectancy 80 for men, 83.2 for women. The town ranks #3 of 5 in Derry City and Strabane and #54 of 63 in Northern Ireland, with a B− overall. That leaves it better than nearly half of UK towns. Homes are affordable (A+): homes sell for a median £152,800, about 3.1 times local household income.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · life expectancy, ONS.
This town's Cost Grade uses house prices and the domestic rates bill: Northern Ireland has no council tax, and no rents are published for its council areas. This town's Health Grade uses NISRA's life expectancy for its district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. Healthy life expectancy and the early-death and hospital measures English towns use aren't published for small areas in Northern Ireland. This town's School Grade uses GCSE results at the post-primary schools its children travel to, grammar and non-grammar, compared with schools across Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland publishes no primary school results. Northern Ireland has no Jobs Grade (no small-area income, claimant or job-access data is published) and no Hazards Grade (its flood maps aren't open data).
The 3 things Castlederg does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Castlederg is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 9 buildings inside Castlederg’s settlement, 2 of them in the top grade, and 3 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Castlederg.
18% live in social housing, lower than both Derry City and Strabane’s towns (28%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). Castlederg is the second cheapest of the 5 towns in Derry City and Strabane, at £152,800. Owners make up 52% of households.
NISRA / Land & Property Services ward sale prices and domestic rates · NISRA Census 2021 tenure · OGL · The figure is NISRA’s median sale price for the wards around Castlederg, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Of its 3 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Castlederg’s two primaries and one secondary have 990 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Patrick's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 279 | – |
| Castlederg High SchoolLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 462 | B+ |
Just over a third of residents have a disability, above both Derry City and Strabane’s towns (29%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (26%). Of the 5 towns in Derry City and Strabane, Castlederg has the largest share in bad or very bad health: 12%.
| Census 2021 | Castlederg | Derry City and Strabane | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 68% | 74% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 12% | 11% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 34% | 29% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · 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.
60% of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences. Castlederg logged 140 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 41 complaints of anti-social conduct. For its size, Castlederg records more crime per resident than 69% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
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 NISRA settlement boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Castlederg’s listed buildings include Castlederg Bridge, Grade A. For its size, Castlederg has the second most listed buildings of the towns in Derry City and Strabane. The national list protects 3 ancient monuments in the town.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 13% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
86% of commuters drove, higher than both Derry City and Strabane’s towns (80%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (79%). Working from home was the norm for 13% of workers at the census. Work in town: 31% of resident commuters. For every resident in work, Castlederg has 1.1 jobs.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Castlederg has a median age of 41.2. 20% of residents are 65 or over, above Derry City and Strabane’s towns (16%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (17%) alike. Degrees are held by nearly a quarter of adults.
53% women, 47% men
About 90 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Castlederg | Derry City and Strabane | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 20% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 20% | 16% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 38% | 29% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 23% | 29% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Derry City and Strabane and Northern Ireland: all residents of their settlements · Women and men: whole data zones, which approximate the town’s boundary · OGL
8 notable people were born in Castlederg.
Conor Bradley: Biser Todorov, CC BY 4.0 · Ivan Sproule: BadboyIain at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Karen Buck: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0 · James Harper: Jgh7phd, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alastair Patterson: Northern Ireland Assembly, CC BY 4.0 · Ian A. Graham: Duncan.Hull, CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlederg | 2,980 | — | B− | A+ | C | C− |
| Strabane | 13,507 | 9.3 | C+ | A+ | C | D |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £152,800, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 12th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 1 post-primary school is inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
Burglary was rare, with 3 reports in the year.
Northern Ireland has no council tax: homes pay domestic rates, set on the home’s capital value, and the rates also pay for water. The average bill in Derry City and Strabane is about £1,121 a year for 2026–27, against England’s average council tax per home of £1,868. Your own bill depends on your home’s value; check it with Land & Property Services on nidirect.
Town in Derry City and Strabane, Northern Ireland
Castlederg is a settlement of 2,980 people, in the Derry City and Strabane council area. TownRatings uses NISRA’s settlements (the 2015 Settlement Development Limits) as Northern Ireland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from NISRA geography and Census 2021
Sources: NISRA Census 2021, data zones best-fitted to the NISRA Settlement Development Limits 2015 (settlement totals from NISRA where it publishes them) · NISRA / Land & Property Services verified residential sales by ward, 2005 to 2024, new and existing dwellings (medians; the 2022 to 2024 headline brought to early-2025 prices with the LPS house price index, which runs to 2026) · Land & Property Services domestic rates paid by council, 2025-26, and Department of Finance rate poundages 2026-27 · data.police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), 36 months to August 2026, points inside the settlement boundary · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and NISRA Census 2021 general health and disability, adjusted for age · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils · Department of Education examination performance at post-primary schools 2024/25 and school-level enrolment data 2025/26 · 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.