Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Population 13,507: a town in Derry City and Strabane, Northern Ireland. The average domestic rates bill is £1,121 a year.
Schools lag (D−): GCSE results beat 2% of Northern Ireland towns. Overall, Strabane earns a C+: better than 35% of UK towns, and #62 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Cost of living is its strong suit — the median home sold for £145,800, 3 years of area income. Health is a weak point: life expectancy is 78.8 for men and 82 for women.
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 Strabane 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 Strabane is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 19 buildings inside Strabane’s settlement, 3 of them in the second grade, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Strabane.
Just over a fifth of households live in social housing. No town in Derry City and Strabane costs less to buy into than Strabane, at £145,800, the lowest of 5. Owners make up 54% of households, above Derry City and the town’s towns (50%) but below Northern Ireland’s towns (59%).
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 Strabane, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Strabane’s five primaries and two secondaries have 3,945 pupils between them. Two of its 8 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 687 | – |
| Holy Cross CollegeLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,517 | B− |
29% of residents have a disability, close to Derry City and Strabane’s towns (29%) and above Northern Ireland’s towns (26%). Asked at the census, 74% of residents of Strabane said they were in good or very good health. Women here live to 82 on average and men to 78.8 (2022–24).
| Census 2021 | Strabane | Derry City and Strabane | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 74% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 11% | 11% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 29% | 29% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as life expectancy.
Strabane logged 850 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 261 complaints of anti-social conduct. Homes saw 10.7 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, above both Derry City and the town’s towns (6.7) and Northern Ireland’s towns (8.8). Violence and sexual offences accounted for 52% of recorded crime.
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 Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 16% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
57% of commuters who live in Strabane also work there. At the census, 18% went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport, about level with Northern Ireland’s towns (18%) and above Derry City and the town’s towns (16%). Driving is how 80% of commuters got to work at the census.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade B+ covers 3 of them. For its size, Strabane has the second fewest listed buildings of the towns in Derry City and Strabane. The national list protects one ancient monument in the town.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Retirement age and beyond: 18% of residents are 65 or older. Residents of Strabane have a median age of 40.9. 19% are under 15, lower than Derry City and the town’s towns (20%) and near Northern Ireland’s towns (19%).
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Strabane | Derry City and Strabane | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 20% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 18% | 16% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 33% | 29% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 25% | 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
19 listed buildings in Strabane.
Gray's Stationery Shop (and Printing Presses): Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Former Strabane Technical College: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · First Trust Bank: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
35 notable people were born in Strabane.
Annie Scott Dill Maunder: Lafayette Ltd, Public domain · Ryan Dolan: Albin Olsson, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rory Patterson: Psychopiano© Alastair Adams 2008 www.fcumania.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chipzel: Lucius Kwok, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Matthew Hamilton Gault: Of the book Illustrated guide to the House of Commons and Senate of Canada: Fabien René Édouard Campeau., Public domain
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strabane | 13,507 | — | C+ | A+ | C | D |
| Castlederg | 2,980 | 9.3 | B− | A+ | C | C− |
| Newbuildings | 2,837 | 10 | A− | A+ | A+ | C− |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 2 post-primary schools are inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
On cost of living it is the 8th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C. Burglary was rare, with 19 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
Strabane is a settlement of 13,507 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.