Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
29,527 people call this large town in Essex, East of England home.
Stanford-le-Hope’s grades cluster near the middle. The weak point is cost of living: a typical home costs £360,000 and rent runs £1,380 a month. With a C+ overall, Stanford-le-Hope is better than two fifths of UK towns. That places it #54 of 81 in Essex. It is easy to get around without a car: 17% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Its other grades sit near the middle: C+ for safety, B− for schools and B− for jobs & income.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Stanford-le-Hope is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 2 things Stanford-le-Hope does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 18 buildings inside Stanford-le-Hope’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade I.
5% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 3 old photos and postcards going back to 1914.
18 listed buildings in Stanford-le-Hope, 2 of them Grade I.
Church of St Mary: Photo: Rjm at sleepers · CC BY-SA 3.0 · St Clere's Hall: Photo: Hjamesberglen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Church of St Margaret of Antioch: Photo: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bull Inn: Photo: Chris Whippet · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Stanford-le-Hope.
A fifth of residents are 65 or over, close to Essex’s towns (20%) and above England’s towns (18%). Half the people of Stanford-le-Hope are older than 41.2. Young adults of 15 to 24 are 11% of the population.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Stanford-le-Hope | Essex | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 20% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.2% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 19% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Essex and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Between them, seven primaries and three secondaries teach 5,552 pupils in Stanford-le-Hope. Three of its 10 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Attainment 8 at the town’s 3 secondary schools averages 43.8, and 43% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graham James Primary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 461 | B+ |
| St Clere's SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,460 | C+ |
| Giffards Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 412 | A |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Stanford-le-Hope’s listed buildings include the Church of St Margaret of Antioch, Grade I. It has 6 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, lower than both Essex’s towns (52) and England’s towns (39). Before 1919: that is when 5% of homes were built. At the top of the list, 2 are Grade I and 1 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Private renters make up 13% of households, below Essex’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (21%) alike. Just over one in ten households rent from a council or housing body. 1,081 standard sales inside Stanford-le-Hope’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £360,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £500,000 | 104 |
| Semi-detached | £382,250 | 536 |
| Terraced | £335,000 | 323 |
| Flat or maisonette | £203,500 | 118 |
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 25% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
A quarter of workers worked mainly from home, below both Essex’s towns (31%) and England’s towns (31%). In 2026, 3% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits. Of the commuters living in Stanford-le-Hope, 13% work in the town itself. There are 0.4 jobs in Stanford-le-Hope for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
4 GP practices serve the town; just over four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Stanford-le-Hope is Basildon University Hospital, 2.5 miles away. Disability touches 16% of the town’s population.
| Census 2021 | Stanford-le-Hope | Essex | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.6% | 4.8% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 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.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Police recorded 1,697 crimes inside Stanford-le-Hope’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 214 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences were 40% of the crimes. Among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Stanford-le-Hope has less crime per resident than 69% of them.
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.
5 notable people were born in Stanford-le-Hope.
Lauren Briggs: England Squash Masters, CC BY 2.0 · Hayley McLean: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Scroobius Pip: Elfie McGilp from Edinburgh, Scotland, CC BY 2.0
Large town in Essex, England
Stanford-le-Hope is a built-up area of 29,527 people, in the Thurrock 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
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford-le-Hope | 29,527 | — | C+ | C | C+ | C+ |
| Horndon on the Hill | 1,510 | 1.7 | — | D | A− | B+ |
| Southfields | 1,167 | 2.4 | — | C− | A− | A− |
| East Tilbury | 5,751 | 2.9 | C− | C | C− | C |
| Orsett | 1,428 | 3.2 | — | D | C | B+ |
| Basildon | 115,935 | 3.7 | D | C+ | D− | D |
| Chadwell St Mary | 10,680 | 3.9 | C− | C | D | D |
| Cliffe | 2,531 | 5 | B− | C | B− | B− |
Horndon on the Hill, Southfields and Orsett have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C+.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £360,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £203,500, terraced houses £335,000, semi-detached houses £382,250 and detached houses £500,000.
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.