Some subjects shine; others lag. The weak point is cost of living — a typical home costs £322,000 and rent runs £1,056 a month. Dorchester’s overall grade of C puts it better than 32% of UK towns, #18 of 30 in Dorset. Walking, cycling and public transport work well here (A+): on the way to work, 35% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: C+ for health, B− for jobs & income and B− for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Environment Agency.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Dorchester is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Maiden Castle: Major George Allen (1891–1940), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The data
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Dorchester.
Work & commuteJobs & income grade B−
Dorchester is more walkable than 98% of UK towns
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 26% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For 57% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. 63% of commuters drove, below Dorset’s towns (76%) and England’s towns (70%) alike. About 53% of its commuters stay in Dorchester for work. The town counts 2.2 jobs per working resident.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
SchoolsC
Results at Dorchester’s schools trail 67% of towns in England
Below are two of its 7 schools, each with why it was picked. Some 4,459 pupils attend Dorchester’s four primaries and three secondaries. 49% of pupils at the town’s 2 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
Department for Education · GIAS, Key Stage 2 and GCSE resultsSee all 7 schools →
Who lives here
Dorchester skews older, with 28% of residents 65 or over, more than in both Dorset’s towns and England’s towns
9.6% of the population is aged 15 to 24, lower than both Dorset’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (12%). Ages in Dorchester split evenly at 48.7: half are older, half younger. Degrees are held by 37% of adults.
48.7median age
DorchesterDorsetEngland
Ages · share of residents
28%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications14%
Apprenticeship6%
A levels or similar17%
Degree level37%
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
WomenEnglandMen
About 90 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
ONS Census 2021 · Dorset and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
HousingCost of living grade D
Dorchester gets a D for cost of living grade
18% live in social housing, above Dorset’s towns (12%) and close to England’s towns (18%). 1,185 standard sales inside Dorchester’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £322,000. Home ownership stands at 63% of households.
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
History
Dorchester has 278 listed buildings, 5 of them Grade I
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Dorchester has 130 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, above both Dorset’s towns (98) and England’s towns (39). Its listed buildings include the Church of St George, Grade I. Grade II* covers 16 of them, Grade I 5.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Safety
Dorchester records more burglary and damage per resident than Dorset’s towns or England’s towns, at 12.3 per 1,000 a year
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
The violent crime rate is 27.4 per 1,000 residents a year. Police recorded 1,198 crimes inside Dorchester’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 415 reports of anti-social behaviour. There were 18.6 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above both Dorset’s towns (8.8) and England’s towns (7.8). Of all the crimes, 45% were violence and sexual offences.
27.4violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a yearC+Safety Grade
Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 61% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: about the middle for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
More crimeLess crime
Reports by type · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Violence & sexual544
Shoplifting205
Damage & arson115
Other theft92
Public order78
Vehicle crime58
Burglary36
Drugs29
Anti-social415
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.
27.4
violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
12.3
burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
18.6
anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 (not graded)
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.
Health
More people in Dorchester live with a disability than in Dorset’s towns or across England’s towns: 21%
6 GP practices serve the town; nearly nine in ten patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Four fifths of Dorchester’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, near Dorset’s towns (81%) and lower than England’s towns (82%). The nearest A&E to Dorchester is Dorset County Hospital, 0.3 miles away.
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.
Maurice Evans: NBC Television, Public domain · Aaron Cook: Ilgar Jafarov, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Paul Hillier: mawster, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Nikki Hamblin: Runningboards, CC BY-SA 4.0
Charminster, Charlton Down, Puddletown, Crossways and Maiden Newton have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Questions about Dorchester
How many listed buildings are there in Dorchester?
That is 5.3 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Church of St George. It also has 7 scheduled monuments.
How much is council tax in Dorchester?
Band D council tax in Dorchester is £2,844 for 2026–27, more than in 99% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire, plus the parish or town council). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
About Dorchester
Large town in Dorset, England
Dorchester is a built-up area of 21,358 people, in the Dorset 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
Population
21,358 (Census 2021)
Council
Dorset
County
Dorset
Region
South West
Area
2.1 sq mi (5.5 km²)
ONS code
E63006736
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.
