Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town in Essex, East of England, home to 5,411 people.
Ingatestone does the important things well, at a cost. Its strongest subject is jobs & income: the mean household earns £74,377 a year. What counts against it is cost of living: homes sell for a median £570,500, about 7.8 times local household income. Hazard risk is higher than most: 1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. The overall grade lands at A, #12 of 81 in Essex. Nationally, it does better than 89% of UK towns.
Figures: income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 3 things Ingatestone 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 Ingatestone is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 54 buildings inside Ingatestone’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
15% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ingatestone.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 46% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: 46% of workers, above both Essex’s towns (31%) and England’s towns (31%). Ingatestone counts 0.9 jobs per working resident. Work in town: just over a tenth of resident commuters. Unemployment benefit claims reached 2% of 16 to 64s in 2026.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
69% of pupils at the town’s 2 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Below are two of its 4 schools, each with why it was picked. Some 2,040 pupils attend Ingatestone’s three primaries and one secondary.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountnessing Church of England Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 191 | B− |
| Anglo European SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,533 | A |
Women here live to 85.8 on average and men to 82.3 (2019–23). At the census, 15% of people here had a disability, lower than both Essex’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (17%). The nearest A&E to Ingatestone is Basildon University Hospital, 8 miles away. One GP practice serves the town; 66% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Ingatestone | Essex | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.9% | 4.8% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 15% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Conservation areas cover 13% of Ingatestone’s land, higher than both Essex’s towns (3%) and England’s towns (7%). Its listed buildings include the Church of St Edmund and St Mary, Grade I. It has 100 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
15% rent privately, lower than both Essex’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (21%). Social housing holds 12% of households. Behind the median of £570,500: 280 standard sales inside Ingatestone’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £817,250 | 104 |
| Semi-detached | £540,000 | 101 |
| Terraced | £457,500 | 41 |
| Flat or maisonette | £285,000 | 34 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Violence accounts for 18.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents a year. The 12 months to August 2026 brought 234 recorded crimes inside Ingatestone’s built-up area, and 22 reports of anti-social behaviour. 36% of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences.
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.
Typical age in Ingatestone: 45.8, the median. Graduates make up 35% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 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.
| Ingatestone | Essex | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.2% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 24% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.8% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 35% | 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 Ingatestone. Best known first.
Historic houseIngatestone Hall500 m outside town, to the east
CathedralBrentwood Cathedral4 km outside town, to the southwest
Historic houseHylands House4.8 km outside town, to the northeast
MuseumThe Cater Museum4.9 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
54 listed buildings in Ingatestone, 1 of them Grade I.
Church of St Edmund and St Mary: Photo: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mountnessing Windmill: Photo: Robin Lucas · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ingatestone Railway Station: Photo: Julian Osley · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Bell Inn: Photo: Robert Edwards · CC BY-SA 2.0
4 notable people were born in Ingatestone.
Sarah Miles: Merlin Energy, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Henry Petre: Darge Photographic Company, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ingatestone | 5,411 | — | A | C | B− | A |
| Stock | 1,573 | 3 | — | C | C+ | A− |
| Billericay | 34,068 | 3.1 | A | D | B+ | A |
| Blackmore | 1,167 | 3.2 | — | C | A− | A |
| Doddinghurst | 4,067 | 3.3 | A− | C | A | A |
| Brentwood | 55,339 | 3.7 | A− | C+ | C | B |
| Kelvedon Hatch | 2,493 | 4.3 | — | C | B | A− |
| Ingrave and Herongate | 1,856 | 4.5 | — | C− | A− | A |
Stock, Blackmore, Kelvedon Hatch 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.
That is 4.1 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Church of St Edmund and St Mary.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £570,500, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £285,000, terraced houses £457,500, semi-detached houses £540,000 and detached houses £817,250.
Secondary results beat 74%.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in Essex, England
Ingatestone is a built-up area of 5,411 people, in the Brentwood 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.