Photo: Joseph Mischyshyn · CC BY-SA 2.0How Derry City and Strabane stacks up
Derry City and Strabane trails every Northern Ireland council area on health: healthy life expectancy at birth is 60.8 years. On balance it grades C−, which places it 55th. Its weak spots are car dependence and GCSE results 4th lowest among the Northern Ireland council areas.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
40th of 65C+38/100 Safer area-wide than in its towns. Its towns trail the area-wide figure, which also counts villages and the countryside. At 30.6 violent offences per 1,000 residents, Derry City and Strabane sits 19th lowest among the areas. Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh all do better on safety.
With theft, burglary and the rest counted too, 57 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 14th lowest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), September 2025 to August 2026; Census 2021 residents.
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. 5 Derry City and Strabane towns.
Few weak spots, town by town
At the quiet end sit Newbuildings (#21), Eglinton (#178) and Castlederg (#1,183) of 2,138 towns. The area-wide rate ranks 19th lowest, but town by town it places 58th of 61. Of residents of its towns, 9% live in the safest quarter and almost none in the quarter 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% | |
| Derry City and Strabane | 9% | 0% |
Town centres and the people who live there
police.uk places every crime at a street or public place near where it happened, never an address, and we count it where that point falls. The council area figure counts violent and sexual offences everywhere in Derry City and Strabane, including town centres, stations and shopping streets. Town grades count the crimes that touch residents where they live (violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage), so a town with a busy centre is not marked down for its shoplifting.
Schools
76th of 90C−16/100 Schools trail most of Northern Ireland. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Eglinton, #1,165. At GCSE it ranks 4th lowest of 11 Northern Ireland council areas, with 71% of pupils getting five good grades including English and maths. Every neighbour scores higher, Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh among them.
Source: Department of Education school performance: pupils with five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, every post-primary school in the district. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts.
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. 5 Derry City and Strabane towns.
Cost of living
8th of 98A93/100 Affordable nearly everywhere. No area puts more of its town residents in the most affordable quarter of towns (100%). Homes cost 3.8 times what the average household takes in a year: a typical sale of £184,900 against income of £48,800. Over five years, typical prices have risen 46%.
Typical sale price: £184,900 (1,492 sales, 21st lowest).
Average domestic rates bill £1,121 (Northern Ireland has rates, not council tax). Shown for context.
Source: NISRA and Land & Property Services median house prices, brought up to date with each district’s house price index; household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); domestic rates. Prices: NISRA/LPS median of all verified residential sales in 2024, brought to 2025Q3..2026Q2 prices with the LGD's LPS house price index; 5-year change = LPS index 2025Q3..2026Q2 vs 2020Q3..2021Q2.
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. 5 Derry City and Strabane towns.
Health
97th of 98D−1/100 Among the least healthy areas. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Eglinton, #1,464. No Northern Ireland council area can expect fewer years in good health than Derry City and Strabane: healthy life expectancy at birth is 60.8 years. Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh all do better on health.
Life expectancy at birth: 79.4 years, 2nd shortest.
Source: ONS healthy life expectancy by district, 2022 to 2024 (a survey-based figure, converted to the scale of the England and Wales small-area figures), and NISRA life expectancy; men and women averaged. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts only.
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. 5 Derry City and Strabane towns.
Jobs & income
73rd of 98C26/100 Money is tighter here. Its claimant rate, 4.1%, ranks 11th highest, while household income ranks 49th highest. Derry City and Strabane ranks 49th highest for household income, at £48,800 a year before tax. Every neighbour scores higher, Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh among them.
Claimant rate: 4.1% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 11th highest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size (Northern Ireland has no small-area income figures); claimant count (August 2026) by district.
Derry City and Strabane has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
88th of 98D10/100 Hard going without a car. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Strabane comes closest, at #1,045 of 2,515. At the 2021 Census, 12% of people travelling to work went on foot, by bike or by public transport, 1 points below the figure for Northern Ireland. It leads its neighbours on walkability, ahead of Causeway Coast and Glens.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 17% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work by district; 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. 5 Derry City and Strabane towns.
Flood risk
Not gradedNot graded: no flood-risk data for Northern Ireland yet. We have not yet loaded flood-risk maps for Northern Ireland, so its council areas, like its towns, have no flood-risk grade. Their overall grade weighs the other subjects.
Growth
71st of 98C28/100 Population barely moving. Since 2011 it has grown 2.8%, the 26th slowest change of 98 areas.
Since the 2021 Census: +1.0%, 27th slowest.
Source: NISRA mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Derry City and Strabane has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Derry City and Strabane compares to its neighbours
Against Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid Ulster and Fermanagh and Omagh, Derry City and Strabane leads on getting about but trails on safety, schools and health.
| Derry City and Strabane | Causeway Coast and Glens | Mid Ulster | Fermanagh and Omagh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C− 1655th of 65 | B 5530th of 65 | A+ 1001st of 65 | A+ 973rd of 65 |
| Safety | C+ 3819th official · 9% in top towns | A− 835th official · 40% in top towns | A+ 1001st official · 100% in top towns | A+ 982nd official |
| Schools | C− 168th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 399th official · 13% in top towns | A 883rd official · 62% in top towns | A+ 1001st official |
| Cost of living | A 9312th official · 100% in top towns | A 8719th official · 100% in top towns | A+ 984th official · 100% in top towns | A+ 9511th official |
| Health | D− 111th official · 0% in top towns | D 89th official · 0% in top towns | B− 521st official · 0% in top towns | B 645th official |
| Jobs & income | C 2649th official | B 6338th official | A+ 9514th official | A− 8234th official |
| Getting about | D 1089th official · 0% in top towns | D 694th official · 0% in top towns | D− 397th official · 0% in top towns | D− 098th official |
| Flood risk | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Growth | C 2873rd official | D 1287th official | B+ 7231st official | C 3270th official |
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.