Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 41,116 people, this large town lies in Greater Manchester, North West.
Walking, cycling and public transport work well here (A): on the way to work, 28% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Where it falls short is cost of living (D−) — the median home sold for £232,250, 5.2 years of area income. Health lags (D−): life expectancy 75.3 for men, 80 for women. Jobs and pay trail most towns (C−): the mean household earns £40,613 a year.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Eccles has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Eccles 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 Eccles is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Eccles has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 25 buildings inside Eccles’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
27% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Eccles. Best known first.
MuseumImperial War Museum North2.3 km outside town, to the southeast · 2K visitors a year
Big drawMuseumScience and Industry Museum4.7 km outside town, to the east · 830K visitors a year
CathedralCathedral Church of St. John the Evangelist4.4 km outside town, to the east
MuseumPeople's History Museum4.9 km outside town, to the east
Garden · RHSRHS Garden Bridgewater1.4 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Eccles.
Home ownership stands at 48% of households. 1,370 standard sales inside Eccles’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £232,250. Private rents average £1,170 a month across the Salford council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £395,500 | 114 |
| Semi-detached | £275,000 | 507 |
| Terraced | £210,000 | 520 |
| Flat or maisonette | £135,000 | 229 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
56% of pupils at the town’s 12 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). St Mary's RC Primary School’s results beat 95% of schools in England like it. Of its 20 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. GCSE results at the town’s 3 secondary schools: 52% of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 49.1.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monton Green Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 440 | C |
| St Patrick's RC High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 912 | A− |
| St Mary's RC Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 239 | A+ |
A fifth of residents have a disability, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (17%). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 6.5% of the town. 3 GP practices serve the town; 84% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Asked at the census, 80% of residents of Eccles said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2021 | Eccles | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.5% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy and early deaths.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 28% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Driving is how two thirds of commuters got to work at the census. Of the commuters living in Eccles, 21% work in the town itself. For every resident in work, Eccles has 1.8 jobs. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 54%, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (47%) and England’s towns (45%).
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Eccles’s listed buildings include the Church of St Mary, Grade I. It has 25 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 1 Grade I, 3 Grade II*. Per 10,000 residents, Eccles counts 6 listed buildings, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (7) and England’s towns (39).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Young adults of 15 to 24 are 11% of the population. Half the people of Eccles are older than 36.8. The share of residents under 15 is 18%.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Eccles | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 32% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 14% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 21% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.7% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 31% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
25 listed buildings in Eccles, 1 of them Grade I.
Monton Unitarian Church: Photo: Phil Platt · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Barton Bridge, Barton Aqueduct and Control Tower: Photo: RuthAS · CC BY 3.0 · Lamb Hotel: Photo: David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Crown Theatre: Photo: BarriePrice100 · CC BY-SA 4.0
63 notable people were born in Eccles.
Benedict Wong: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Danny Simpson: CrackersTeam, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sydney Chapman: NOAA, Public domain · Kathleen Shaw: Skating magazine, December 1927, Public domain · Claire Fox: ©House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0 · Samia Longchambon: Racklever, CC BY-SA 3.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eccles | 41,116 | — | — | D− | — | D− |
| Swinton | 22,886 | 1.7 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Urmston | 41,728 | 2.3 | — | C− | — | C |
| Wardley | 2,298 | 2.5 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Clifton | 17,748 | 2.5 | — | D | — | C− |
| Worsley | 11,958 | 2.6 | — | D− | — | A− |
| Stretford | 28,010 | 2.9 | — | C | — | C− |
| Pendlebury | 1,768 | 2.9 | — | D− | — | D |
Wardley and Pendlebury have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Swinton, Urmston, Wardley, Clifton, Worsley, Stretford and Pendlebury have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Its Grade I building is Church of St Mary. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Eccles has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Band D council tax in Eccles is £2,594 for 2026–27, more than in 84% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Eccles is a built-up area of 41,116 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
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.