Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
19,962 people call this town in Greater Manchester, North West home.
Walking, cycling and public transport work well here (A): 24% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Where it falls short is cost of living: a typical home costs £207,000 and rent runs £942 a month. Natural hazards are less of a worry than in most UK towns (A). Residents’ health trails most towns (D): life expectancy is 76.6 for men and 79.8 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 Failsworth has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
The 3 things Failsworth 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 Failsworth is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Failsworth has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects still get grades, below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 9 buildings inside Failsworth’s built-up area.
24% 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 Failsworth. Best known first.
MuseumEnglish Football Hall of Fame4.8 km outside town, to the west
CathedralManchester Cathedral4.9 km outside town, to the west
MuseumChetham's Library4.8 km outside town, to the west
MuseumNational Football Museum4.8 km outside town, to the west
MuseumManchester Jewish Museum4.1 km outside town, to the west
Art galleryGallery Oldham3.2 km outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Failsworth.
Behind the median of £207,000: 635 standard sales inside Failsworth’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026. Home ownership stands at 62% of households. Private renters make up 19% of households, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (21%).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £322,500 | 52 |
| Semi-detached | £229,500 | 314 |
| Terraced | £175,000 | 251 |
| Flat or maisonette | £120,500 | 18 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
GCSE results at the 12 secondary schools within 3 km: two in five pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 44.2. St Mary's RC Primary School, a Voluntary Academy’s results beat 92% of schools in England like it. Failsworth’s six primaries and one secondary have 3,417 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's RC Primary School, a Voluntary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 450 | A |
| Co-op Academy FailsworthLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,434 | B− |
| Propps Hall Junior Infant and Nursery SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 237 | A− |
Nearly a fifth of residents are 65 or over, higher than both Greater Manchester’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). Young adults of 15 to 24 account for just over a tenth of the town. Half of Failsworth is older than 41.6, half younger. The share of residents under 15 is 17%.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Failsworth | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 19% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.9% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 22% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Asked at the census, nearly four in five residents of Failsworth said they were in good or very good health. At the census, 6.9% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, above Greater Manchester’s towns (5.9%) and England’s towns (5.2%) alike. Also worth knowing: 2 GP practices serve the town; 69% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Failsworth | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.9% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 18% | 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.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 25% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For every resident in work, Failsworth has 0.6 jobs. Just over one in ten commuters who live in Failsworth also work there. Household income came to £41K a year before tax, below Greater Manchester’s towns (£46K) and England’s towns (£55K) alike.
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.
24% of homes date from before 1919. Historic England’s list names 9 listed buildings in Failsworth, every one Grade II. Relative to its size, Failsworth keeps 5 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (7) and England’s towns (39).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
9 listed buildings in Failsworth.
Regent Mill: Photo: Peter McDermott · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Church of Saint John: Photo: Bill Boaden · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Firs Hall: Photo: Gerald England · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Church of St Mary the Immaculate Conception, Failsworth: Photo: Peter McDermott · CC BY-SA 2.0
14 notable people were born in Failsworth.
Jim Ratcliffe: Staff photographer, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Darren Wharton: HeavyMezza89, Public domain · Michael Atherton: No machine-readable author provided. Amakuru assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Benjamin Brierley: Mcyssjm2 at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Johnny Saint: The Doppelganger, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Failsworth | 19,962 | — | — | D | — | D |
| Woodhouses | 1,094 | 0.7 | — | D− | — | C |
| Droylsden | 23,916 | 1.5 | — | D | — | D |
| Chadderton | 37,602 | 2.3 | — | D | — | D |
| Audenshaw | 13,397 | 2.6 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | 48,595 | 2.6 | — | D | — | D− |
| Oldham | 110,722 | 2.9 | — | C− | — | D− |
| Middleton | 46,617 | 3.7 | — | D | — | D |
Woodhouses has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Woodhouses, Droylsden, Chadderton, Audenshaw, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and Middleton 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 Failsworth 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 £207,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £120,500, terraced houses £175,000, semi-detached houses £229,500 and detached houses £322,500. Household incomes are lower than in 91% of UK towns, so cost of living grades D.
Town in Greater Manchester, England
Failsworth is a built-up area of 19,962 people, in the Oldham 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.