Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Primary school results beat 95% of towns in England. Some 34,068 people live in this large town, in Essex, East of England.
The everyday basics are strong; the price of a home is the catch. Households here earn well: mean household income £75,580; 1.7% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Overall, Billericay earns an A, which places it #10 of 81 in Essex. Set against the rest, it does better than 91% of UK towns. Add health to its strengths (A): life expectancy is 82.9 for men and 86.5 for women. What holds it back is cost of living — homes sell for a median £465,000, about 7.9 times local household income.
Figures: income and life expectancy, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Billericay 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 Billericay is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 58 buildings inside Billericay’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
2% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 2 old photos and postcards going back to 1913.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Billericay.
5 GP practices serve the town; 77% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 3.2% of residents report bad or very bad health. At the census, 13% of people here had a disability, below Essex’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (17%) alike. Asked at the census, 86% of residents of Billericay said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2021 | Billericay | Essex | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 86% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.2% | 4.8% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 13% | 17% | 17% |
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.
Key Stage 2 results at the town’s 6 primary schools: nearly three quarters of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Below are three of its 10 schools, each with why it was picked. Attainment 8 at the town’s 2 secondary schools averages 47.7, and 50% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buttsbury Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 863 | A |
| Harris Academy BillericayLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,729 | B |
| St Peter's Catholic Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 419 | A+ |
Social housing holds 7% of households, lower than both Essex’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (18%). Just over one in ten households rent privately. Also worth knowing: 1,480 standard sales inside Billericay’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £465,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £700,000 | 463 |
| Semi-detached | £465,000 | 576 |
| Terraced | £375,000 | 271 |
| Flat or maisonette | £244,000 | 170 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 45% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
45% of workers worked mainly from home, above both Essex’s towns (31%) and England’s towns (31%). Of the commuters living in Billericay, 22% work in the town itself. There are 0.7 jobs in Billericay for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Billericay’s listed buildings include the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Grade I. 2% of homes date from before 1919. One scheduled monument lies locally.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence and sexual offences were just over two fifths of the crimes. A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 1,437 offences in Billericay and 141 cases of nuisance behaviour. Violent crime ran at 16.9 per 1,000 residents a year, lower than both Essex’s towns (23.1) and England’s towns (22).
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.
Graduates make up nearly a third of adults. Nearly one in ten residents are 15 to 24, lower than both Essex’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (12%). The median resident of Billericay is 44.7 years old.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Billericay | Essex | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.5% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 22% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 14% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 32% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Essex and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Billericay. Best known first.
MuseumThe Cater Museumin town
Historic houseIngatestone Hall2.4 km outside town, to the northwest
Historic houseThorndon Hall5 km outside town, to the southwest
MuseumBarleylands Farm Museum600 m outside town, to the southeastWildlife parkWildlife parkBarleylands Farm Park600 m outside town, to the southeastZooZooImperial Birds of Prey Academy600 m outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
58 listed buildings in Billericay, 1 of them Grade I.
Church of St Mary Magdalene: Photo: John Winfield · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Burghstead House: Photo: MadeInBasildon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 6, 8 and 10, Norsey Road: Photo: John Webber · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The White Hart Public House: Photo: Piecesofuk · CC BY-SA 4.0
31 notable people were born in Billericay.
Russell Tovey: Charlotte Pritchard, CC BY 2.0 · David Gandy: Conor Clinch, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Richard Osman: librairie mollat, CC BY 3.0 · Ben Wheatley: Raffi Asdourian from New York, United States, CC BY 2.0 · Mark Foster: Micebase at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Chris Haywood: Eva Rinaldi, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billericay | 34,068 | — | A | D | B+ | A |
| Ramsden Heath | 1,949 | 2.2 | — | C | A− | A− |
| Stock | 1,573 | 2.6 | — | C | C+ | A− |
| Crays Hill | 1,218 | 2.8 | — | D | C+ | B+ |
| Ingatestone | 5,411 | 3.1 | A | C | B− | A |
| Ingrave and Herongate | 1,856 | 3.8 | — | C− | A− | A |
| Basildon | 115,935 | 4.2 | D | C+ | D− | D |
| Runwell | 8,086 | 4.3 | C+ | B− | C− | C+ |
Ramsden Heath, Stock, Crays Hill and Ingrave and Herongate have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Secondary results are closer to the middle, beating 66%.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £465,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £244,000, terraced houses £375,000, semi-detached houses £465,000 and detached houses £700,000.
Large town in Essex, England
Billericay is a built-up area of 34,068 people, in the Basildon 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.