Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town in Dorset, South West, home to 4,554 people.
A town with more to fix than most. Work and incomes lag: the mean household earns £45,066 a year. Fortuneswell’s overall grade is D, better than 6% of UK towns. Schools lag: primary results beat 29% of towns in England; secondary results beat 5% of towns in England. Natural hazards weigh more here: 6.7% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. Fewer journeys need a car: 23% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. At a median £205,000, a home costs 3.9 times the yearly income of households in the Dorset council area.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Environment Agency · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Fortuneswell 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 Fortuneswell is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 78 buildings inside Fortuneswell’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 3 scheduled monuments.
40% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Fortuneswell. Best known first.
Castle · English HeritagePortland Castlein town
FortThe Verne Citadelin town
CastleRufus Castle2 km outside town, to the south
CastleSandsfoot Castle2.6 km outside town, to the north
MuseumPortland Museum1.9 km outside town, to the south
CastlePennsylvania Castle2.1 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Fortuneswell.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Per 10,000 residents, Fortuneswell counts 171 listed buildings, higher than both Dorset’s towns (98) and England’s towns (39). Its listed buildings include Portland Castle, Grade I. At the top of the list, 1 are Grade I and 6 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 23% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Fortuneswell counts 1 jobs per working resident. About 17% of its commuters stay in Fortuneswell for work. 35% of commuters travelled under 5 km, below both Dorset’s towns (48%) and England’s towns (45%).
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 7.5% of the town. Just over three quarters of Fortuneswell’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, below Dorset’s towns (81%) and England’s towns (82%) alike. Seeing a GP means leaving Fortuneswell: the nearest practice is 1.3 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Fortuneswell | Dorset | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.5% | 5.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 26% | 19% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
Violence and sexual offences accounted for 62% of recorded crime. Homes saw 10.5 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, higher than both Dorset’s towns (7.8) and England’s towns (9.4). Reported offences in Fortuneswell came to 244 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 71.
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.
No town in Dorset costs less to buy into than Fortuneswell, at £205,000, the lowest of 32. Social housing holds nearly a quarter of households, above Dorset’s towns (12%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. Private renters make up 27% of households.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £300,000 | 19 |
| Semi-detached | £188,000 | 21 |
| Terraced | £230,000 | 103 |
| Flat or maisonette | £125,000 | 42 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
18% of residents have reached 65. People aged 15 to 24 make up a tenth of the town, below Dorset’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (12%) alike. The median resident of Fortuneswell is 45.9 years old.
44% women, 56% men
About 79 women for every 100 men. Across England, 51% of residents are women. A large institution, such as a prison, barracks, boarding school, university or care home, can tilt a town’s split: the census counts the people living there as residents.
| Fortuneswell | Dorset | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 15% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.9% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 23% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 33% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 18% | 25% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 16% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.5% | 6.4% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 26% | 31% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Dorset and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
78 listed buildings in Fortuneswell, 1 of them Grade I.
RAF Portland, site of Rotor early warning radar station: Photo: Jim Champion · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Verne Citadel: Photo: Chris Downer · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bridge at Sy 6923 7333: Photo: Richard Symonds · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Royal Victoria Hotel: Photo: Ian S · CC BY-SA 2.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortuneswell | 4,554 | — | D | C+ | C− | C− |
| Grove | 1,032 | 1.2 | — | C | D | C− |
| Weston | 5,208 | 1.3 | C− | C | C+ | C |
| Southwell | 1,700 | 2.2 | — | C | A | C+ |
| Weymouth | 55,540 | 4 | D | C− | C− | C |
| Chickerell | 3,973 | 4.8 | C | D | B+ | B− |
| Dorchester | 21,358 | 10 | C | D | C+ | C+ |
| Crossways | 2,494 | 11 | — | C− | A− | B+ |
Grove, Southwell and Crossways have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 7 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Portland Castle. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Band D council tax in Fortuneswell is £2,782 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.
Places are handled by Dorset council.
Town in Dorset, England
Fortuneswell is a built-up area of 4,554 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
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.