Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a large town of 26,367 residents in Greater Manchester, North West.
Schools are its strong suit: primary results beat 84% of towns in England; secondary results beat 45% of towns in England. Its lowest grade is for health — life expectancy is 78.6 for men and 81.8 for women. Buying the median home, at £190,000, takes 4.4 years of household income in the Wigan council area. Jobs & income is weaker too (C+): mean household income £44,061; 2.6% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. The rest of its grades are middling: B− for walkability and C+ for hazard risk.
Figures: life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Environment Agency. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Ashton-in-Makerfield has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Ashton-in-Makerfield is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Ashton-in-Makerfield has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Ashton-in-Makerfield does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 13 buildings inside Ashton-in-Makerfield’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade II*.
18% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →13 listed buildings in Ashton-in-Makerfield.
Home Farmhouse: Photo: Rodhullandemu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Carnegie Library: Photo: Rodhullandemu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · St Oswald's Presbytery: Photo: Rodhullandemu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Church of St Thomas: Photo: Rodhullandemu · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ashton-in-Makerfield.
26% of adults hold a degree, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (32%) and England’s towns (34%). One measure of family life: 15% of residents are under 15. The age that splits Ashton-in-Makerfield in two is 46.7. People aged 15 to 24 are 10% of the population.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Ashton-in-Makerfield | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 24% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.8% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 26% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Attainment 8 at the town’s 3 secondary schools averages 45.3, and 43% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. Nicol Mere School’s results beat nearly every one of schools in England like it. Three of its 12 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Between them, eight primaries and three secondaries teach 5,286 pupils in Ashton-in-Makerfield.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| R L Hughes Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 425 | B+ |
| St Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic High School, Ashton-in-MakerfieldLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,204 | B+ |
| Nicol Mere SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 418 | A+ |
Disability touches a fifth of Ashton-in-Makerfield’s population. 4 GP practices serve the town; nearly four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 6% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, about level with Greater Manchester’s towns (5.9%) and above England’s towns (5.2%).
| Census 2021 | Ashton-in-Makerfield | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
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. Relative to its size, Ashton-in-Makerfield keeps 5 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (7) and England’s towns (39). Before 1919: that is when 18% of homes were built.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
13% of households rent privately. Social housing holds 10% of households, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (18%). Private rents average £757 a month across the Wigan council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £300,000 | 195 |
| Semi-detached | £190,000 | 501 |
| Terraced | £145,000 | 228 |
| Flat or maisonette | £91,250 | 16 |
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 23% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Driving is how 84% of commuters got to work at the census. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 34%, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (47%) and England’s towns (45%). Each working resident is matched by 0.5 jobs in Ashton-in-Makerfield. 15% of commuters who live in Ashton-in-Makerfield also work there.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Ashton-in-Makerfield. Best known first.
Historic houseBispham Hall3.6 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumMuseum of Wigan Life4.1 km outside town, to the northAttractionAttractionBridge Warehouse3.9 km outside town, to the northHistoric siteHistoric siteThe Orwell at Wigan Pier3.9 km outside town, to the northAttractionAttractionTrencherfield Mill3.7 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
14 notable people were born in Ashton-in-Makerfield.
Chris Melling: Mortonstalker, CC BY-SA 3.0
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Ashton-in-Makerfield is a built-up area of 26,367 people, in the Wigan 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashton-in-Makerfield | 26,367 | — | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Haydock | 16,143 | 2.1 | D | C+ | C | D |
| Platt Bridge and Abram | 10,587 | 2.6 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Billinge | 4,963 | 2.6 | B− | C− | B+ | C+ |
| Newton-le-Willows | 24,651 | 2.8 | D | C | C− | D |
| Golborne | 25,563 | 3 | — | B | — | C− |
| Wigan | 81,580 | 3.2 | — | A− | — | D |
| Bickershaw | 2,277 | 3.4 | — | B+ | — | D |
Bickershaw has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Platt Bridge and Abram, Golborne, Wigan and Bickershaw have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Ashton-in-Makerfield has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £190,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £91,250, terraced houses £145,000, semi-detached houses £190,000 and detached houses £300,000.
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.