Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
32,383 residents make their home in this large town in Essex, East of England. Mortgage-free owners make up 44% of households.
Work and incomes are strong: mean household income £64,780; 2.2% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Rayleigh’s overall grade is B+, better than 72% of UK towns. That places it #30 of 81 in Essex. What holds it back is cost of living: homes sell for a median £417,500, about 6.8 times local household income. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: B− for safety, B for schools and B− for hazard risk.
Figures: income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 3 things Rayleigh 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 Rayleigh is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 39 buildings inside Rayleigh’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade II*, and 1 scheduled monument.
3% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 3 old photos and postcards.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Rayleigh. Best known first.
Castle · National TrustRayleigh Castlein town
MuseumRayleigh Town Museumin town
Castle · English HeritageHadleigh Castle3.2 km outside town, to the southGardenGarden · National TrustRayleigh Mountin townHistoric siteHistoric siteRayleigh Millin townMuseumMuseumLeigh Heritage Centre4 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Rayleigh.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 39% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
77% of commuters drove, above both Essex’s towns (74%) and England’s towns (70%). At the census, nearly two in five workers worked mainly from home. Of the commuters living in Rayleigh, 18% work in the town itself. For every resident in work, Rayleigh has 0.6 jobs.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Key Stage 2 results at the town’s 8 primary schools: two thirds of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Three of its 10 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Rayleigh’s eight primaries and two secondaries have 6,138 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grove Wood Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 630 | B+ |
| The FitzWimarc SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,770 | B− |
| Rayleigh Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 463 | A |
Half of Rayleigh is older than 45.5, half younger. People 65 and over make up 23% of the town, higher than both Essex’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (18%). 17% of residents are children under 15.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 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.
| Rayleigh | Essex | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 24% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Essex and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 1 of them. Homes from before 1919 make up 3% of the total, below both Essex’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (16%). Rayleigh counts 39 listed buildings on the national list (Historic England): 1 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Home ownership stands at just over four in five households. Social housing holds 7% of households, lower than both Essex’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (18%). Private rents average £1,300 a month across the Rochford council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £535,000 | 505 |
| Semi-detached | £405,000 | 673 |
| Terraced | £351,250 | 146 |
| Flat or maisonette | £219,000 | 182 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
15% of residents in Rayleigh live with a disability. At the census, 84% of people in Rayleigh called their health good or very good, higher than both Essex’s towns (83%) and England’s towns (82%). 4 GP practices serve the town; 73% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Rayleigh | Essex | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.8% | 4.8% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 15% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 1,611 offences in Rayleigh and 223 cases of nuisance behaviour. Among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Rayleigh has less crime per resident than 78% of them. Violence and sexual offences accounted for 48% 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 ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
39 listed buildings in Rayleigh.
Rayleigh Castle: Photo: John Myers · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of Holy Trinity: Photo: Nick Bate · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rayleigh Baptist Church: Photo: Hassocks5489 · CC0 · The Crown Public House: Photo: John Myers · 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rayleigh | 32,383 | — | B+ | C | B− | B+ |
| Thundersley and South Benfleet | 49,886 | 2.2 | B | D | B− | B |
| Hullbridge | 5,709 | 2.3 | B | C | B− | B |
| Hockley and Hawkwell | 15,430 | 2.3 | A | C | A− | A |
| North Benfleet | 1,765 | 3.4 | — | D | C− | D |
| Ashingdon | 6,490 | 3.7 | A | C+ | A | B+ |
| Wickford | 27,533 | 3.7 | B | C− | B− | B |
| South Woodham Ferrers | 16,029 | 3.7 | A | B | B+ | A− |
North Benfleet has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
An older town. At the 2021 Census, 23% of residents were 65 or over and 28% were 45 to 64, against 18% and 25% across England’s towns; 17% were under 15.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades B−.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £417,500, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £219,000, terraced houses £351,250, semi-detached houses £405,000 and detached houses £535,000.
Large town in Essex, England
Rayleigh is a built-up area of 32,383 people, in the Rochford 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.