Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a large town of 49,886 residents in Essex, East of England.
Plenty in its favour, and one clear drawback. Jobs & income is its strong suit (A): households earn a mean £60,428 a year, and 1.9% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Walkability is another plus: 18% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. The drawback is cost of living (D): homes sell for a median £389,000, about 7 times local household income. Put together, the subjects come to a B overall, ranking #41 of 81 in Essex. Nationally, it does better than 58% of UK towns. Elsewhere it is close to typical: B− for safety, C+ for schools, B for health and B for hazard risk.
Figures: income and life expectancy, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Thundersley and South Benfleet is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Thundersley and South Benfleet does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 31 buildings inside Thundersley and South Benfleet’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade I.
3% 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 1908.
31 listed buildings in Thundersley and South Benfleet, 2 of them Grade I.
Church of St James the Less: Photo: JohnArmagh · Public domain · The Anchor Inn and Building Attached to Right: Photo: John Myers · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Shipwrights: Photo: Hjamesberglen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · South Benfleet War Memorial: Photo: JohnArmagh; derivative work: SilkTork · Public domain
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Thundersley and South Benfleet.
The share of residents under 15 is 16%. The 15-to-24 age group: 10%, close to Essex’s towns (11%) and below England’s towns (12%). Ages in Thundersley and South Benfleet split evenly at 46.7: half are older, half younger. Among adults, 21% have a degree.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 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.
| Thundersley and South Benfleet | Essex | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 25% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 19% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.7% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 21% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Essex and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Some 7,782 pupils attend Thundersley and South Benfleet’s 12 primaries and three secondaries. Kingston Primary School’s results beat 97% of schools in England like it. Secondary results at the town’s 3 secondary schools: an Attainment 8 score of 43.2, with 40% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Of its 17 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thundersley Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 423 | B |
| The King John SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 2,098 | B+ |
| Kingston Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 210 | A+ |
4% of households live in social housing. Private renters make up 12% of households, below both Essex’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (21%). The £389,000 median rests on 2,105 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £515,000 | 681 |
| Semi-detached | £380,000 | 985 |
| Terraced | £347,500 | 137 |
| Flat or maisonette | £225,000 | 302 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Homes built before 1919 account for 3% of the housing. Thundersley and South Benfleet’s listed buildings include the Church of St James the Less, Grade I. Listed buildings per head: 6 for every 10,000 residents of the town.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 33% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
36% of commuters travelled under 5 km, lower than both Essex’s towns (41%) and England’s towns (45%). The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 1.9%. About just over a fifth of its commuters stay in Thundersley and South Benfleet for work. There are 0.6 jobs in Thundersley and South Benfleet for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
7 GP practices serve the town; 69% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 16% of people here had a disability, close to Essex’s towns (17%) and below England’s towns (17%). Also worth knowing: the nearest A&E to Thundersley and South Benfleet is Southend University Hospital, 4.9 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Thundersley and South Benfleet | Essex | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 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 · These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, including 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 2,029 crimes inside Thundersley and South Benfleet’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 239 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences accounted for nearly half of recorded crime. Violent crime ran at 20.9 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.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Thundersley and South Benfleet. Best known first.
Castle · English HeritageHadleigh Castle500 m outside town, to the southeast
Castle · National TrustRayleigh Castle1.3 km outside town, to the northeast
MuseumRayleigh Town Museum1 km outside town, to the northeast
MuseumCastle Point Transport Museum3.5 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumCanvey Island Heritage Centre Museum2.4 km outside town, to the southGardenGarden · National TrustRayleigh Mount1.3 km outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
9 notable people were born in Thundersley and South Benfleet.
Bill Longmuir: Pvt pauline, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Peter de Neumann: Adeligneumann at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5
Large town in Essex, England
Thundersley and South Benfleet is a built-up area of 49,886 people, in the Castle Point 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thundersley and South Benfleet | 49,886 | — | B | D | B− | B |
| North Benfleet | 1,765 | 1.9 | — | D | C− | D |
| Rayleigh | 32,383 | 2.2 | B+ | C | B− | B+ |
| Canvey Island | 38,004 | 2.9 | C | C | C | C− |
| Wickford | 27,533 | 3.7 | B | C− | B− | B |
| Hockley and Hawkwell | 15,430 | 4.4 | A | C | A− | A |
| Hullbridge | 5,709 | 4.4 | B | C | B− | B |
| Runwell | 8,086 | 4.7 | C+ | B− | C− | C+ |
North Benfleet has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £389,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £225,000, terraced houses £347,500, semi-detached houses £380,000 and detached houses £515,000.
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.