Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
In Greater Manchester, North West, this town has 17,748 residents.
Walkability is where it shines — just over a fifth of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Homes are dear: a typical home costs £220,000 and rent runs £1,164 a month. Hazard risk is lower than in most UK towns (A). Health is weaker too: life expectancy 79 for men, 82.2 for women.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency · life expectancy, ONS. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Clifton 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 Clifton is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Clifton has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 2 things Clifton does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 11 buildings inside Clifton’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
12% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →11 listed buildings in Clifton, 1 of them Grade I.
Clifton Railway Viaduct (The Thirteen Arches) That Part in Swinton and Pendlebury: Photo: Parrot of Doom · CC BY-SA 3.0 · St Augustine's Gatehouse: Photo: Peter McDermott · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Andrew Knowles and Sons Collieries War Memorial: Photo: Richerman · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Christ Church: Photo: Gammock · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Clifton.
Social housing holds 22% of households, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (18%). Behind the median of £220,000: 549 standard sales inside Clifton’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026. It is the 49th most expensive of 81 towns of 2,500+ in Greater Manchester.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £345,500 | 58 |
| Semi-detached | £235,000 | 270 |
| Terraced | £201,000 | 127 |
| Flat or maisonette | £127,500 | 94 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Secondary results at the 14 secondary schools within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 46.2, with 46% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Kearsley Academy’s results beat 82% of schools in England like it. Of its 6 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Three in five pupils at the town’s 4 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mossfield Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 279 | C |
| Kearsley AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 768 | A− |
One GP practice serves the town; 88% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 20% of people here had a disability, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (17%). The nearest A&E to Clifton is Salford Royal Hospital, 2 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Clifton | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.7% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Clifton’s listed buildings include the Church of St Augustine, Grade I. Just over one in ten homes date from before 1919. Scaled to its population, that is 6 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in 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 27% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Jobs per working resident: 0.8. Work in town: 7% of resident commuters. At the census, 21% went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (24%) and England’s towns (27%). Households take home £43K a year before tax, on average.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Line up the people of Clifton by age and the one in the middle is 39.1. The 15-to-24 age group: 10%, below Greater Manchester’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (12%) alike. Children are 18% of the town.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Clifton | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 17% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.1% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 27% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Clifton. Best known first.
MuseumEnglish Football Hall of Fame4.4 km outside town, to the southeast
CathedralManchester Cathedral4.2 km outside town, to the southeast
Art galleryManchester Art Gallery4.8 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumImperial War Museum North3.6 km outside town, to the south · 2K visitors a year
Big drawMuseumScience and Industry Museum4.1 km outside town, to the southeast · 830K visitors a year
MuseumChetham's Library4.3 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
12 notable people were born in Clifton.
John Read: Unknown photographer, Public domain · Ernest Toop: Unknown photographer, Public domain
Town in Greater Manchester, England
Clifton is a built-up area of 17,748 people, in the Salford 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clifton | 17,748 | — | — | D | — | C− |
| Swinton | 22,886 | 1 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Wardley | 2,298 | 1.3 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Pendlebury | 1,768 | 1.3 | — | D− | — | D |
| Prestwich | 31,509 | 2.2 | — | D | — | C− |
| Eccles | 41,116 | 2.5 | — | D− | — | D− |
| Salford | 108,431 | 2.5 | — | D | — | D− |
| Whitefield | 22,193 | 2.7 | — | C− | — | C− |
Wardley and Pendlebury have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Swinton, Wardley, Pendlebury, Prestwich, Eccles, Salford and Whitefield 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 Clifton 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 £220,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £127,500, terraced houses £201,000, semi-detached houses £235,000 and detached houses £345,500. Household incomes are lower than in 85% of UK towns, so cost of living grades D.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
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.