Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A village of 2,250 in Gloucestershire, South West.
Berkeley has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Its strongest subject is jobs & income (B): mean household income £60,361; 2% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Its weakest is walkability (C−): 9% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. The median home sold for £315,000 in the last three years, 5.5 times what households in the Stroud council area earn in a year.
Gloucestershire Police published 29 of the 36 months; rates are per year over the months published.
The 3 things Berkeley 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 Berkeley is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists them inside Berkeley’s built-up area.
22% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Berkeley.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
In the comparison, Berkeley comes above both Gloucestershire’s towns (89) and England’s towns (39). Berkeley’s listed buildings include Berkeley Castle, Grade I. Berkeley has 129 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 4 Grade I, 2 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lift BerkeleyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 232 | C |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 27% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For Berkeley, that is below both Gloucestershire’s towns (45%) and England’s towns (45%). The car carried 90% of commuters at the census.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Berkeley sits below both Gloucestershire’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (12%) on this measure. 24% of residents are 65 or over. The median resident of Berkeley is 46 years old.
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.
| Berkeley | Gloucestershire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.1% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 24% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 15% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.2% | 5.8% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 20% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 29% | 34% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Gloucestershire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Police recorded 46 crimes inside Berkeley’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 15 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences were 61% of the crimes; the police category includes harassment and stalking, so it runs higher than U.S. “violent 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
Private renters make up 16% of households, close to Gloucestershire’s towns (17%) and below England’s towns (21%).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £445,000 | 52 |
| Semi-detached | £312,500 | 32 |
| Terraced | £240,000 | 45 |
| Flat or maisonette | £132,250 | 6 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
That puts Berkeley below both Gloucestershire’s towns (4.5%) and England’s towns (5.2%). The nearest A&E to Berkeley is Southmead Hospital, 14.8 miles away. 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.
| Census 2021 | Berkeley | Gloucestershire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.7% | 4.5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Berkeley. Best known first.
CastleBerkeley Castlein town
MuseumEdward Jenner Museumin townTheme parkTheme parkCattle Country Farm Park800 m outside town, to the eastWildlife parkWildlife parkWhitcliff Park (Deer Park)2.3 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
14 notable people were born in Berkeley.
Edward Jenner: James Northcote, Public domain · James Phipps: Gaston Mélingue, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 2,250 | — | — | B | C+ | B− |
| Sharpness | 1,237 | 1.6 | — | A− | C− | C+ |
| Lydney | 9,655 | 3.8 | C | B | C | C+ |
| Cam | 7,730 | 3.8 | B− | B | B− | B |
| Dursley | 7,935 | 4.5 | C | B+ | C+ | C |
| Blakeney | 1,303 | 4.6 | — | B | C+ | C+ |
| Charfield | 2,833 | 5.2 | B+ | C | B+ | A |
| Yorkley and Whitecroft | 2,678 | 5.6 | C+ | B− | B+ | B |
Sharpness and Blakeney have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 23.5 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Berkeley Castle.
An older village. More households own their home than across England’s towns: 69%, against 61%.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Burglary was rare, with 2 reports in the year.
Village in Gloucestershire, England
Berkeley is a built-up area of 2,250 people, in the Stroud 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.