Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 24,485 residents, it is a large town in Greater Manchester, North West.
Cost of living is its strong suit (B+): the median home sold for £196,000, 4.6 years of area income. Its lowest grade is for health (D): life expectancy 76.7 for men, 79.8 for women. Work and incomes lag: households earn a mean £40,283 a year, and 3.2% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: B− for schools and B− for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Hindley 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 Hindley is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Hindley 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 Hindley does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 9 buildings inside Hindley’s built-up area.
20% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →9 listed buildings in Hindley.
Church of All Saints: Photo: S Parish · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Lord Nelson Hotel: Photo: David Long · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Hindley Library and Museum: Photo: Alan Murray-Rust · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Church of St Peter: Photo: Alexander P Kapp · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Hindley.
Children under 15 make up 16% of residents. People 65 and over make up 21% of the town, higher than both Greater Manchester’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). At 44, the median resident of Hindley sits in the middle of the age range. Young adults of 15 to 24 account for just over a tenth of the town.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Hindley | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 21% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 24% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.6% | 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
Some 2,612 pupils attend Hindley’s eight primaries and one secondary. St Benedict's Catholic Primary School the town’s results beat 95% of schools in England like it. GCSE results at the 5 secondary schools within 3 km: 39% of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 42.6. Three of its 12 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindley Green Community Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 420 | C+ |
| Outwood Academy HindleyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 908 | C+ |
| St Benedict's Catholic Primary School HindleyTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 198 | A+ |
At the census, 21% of people here had a disability, higher than both Greater Manchester’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (17%). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 6.9% of the town. 2 GP practices serve the town; just over four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 78% of people in Hindley rate their own health good or very good.
| Census 2021 | Hindley | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.9% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 21% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, 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.
Homes from before 1919 make up 20% of the total, close to Greater Manchester’s towns (20%) and above England’s towns (16%). Hindley has 4 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
70% of households own their home. Council and housing-body homes hold 16% of households. From September 2023 to August 2026, 1,037 homes sold inside Hindley’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £196,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £283,000 | 235 |
| Semi-detached | £208,000 | 427 |
| Terraced | £143,000 | 358 |
| Flat or maisonette | £100,000 | 17 |
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 20% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
14% of commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (24%) and England’s towns (27%). For just over two in five commuters, work was under 5 km away. There are 0.6 jobs in Hindley for each resident in work.
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 Hindley. Best known first.
MuseumMuseum of Wigan Life2.6 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumLeigh Town Hall Archives2.6 km outside town, to the southeastAttractionAttractionBridge Warehouse3.2 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumNorth West Computer Museum3.8 km outside town, to the southeastMuseumMuseumLeigh Spinners Mill Heritage Centre3.8 km outside town, to the southeastHistoric siteHistoric siteThe Orwell at Wigan Pier3.3 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
13 notable people were born in Hindley.
Lily Brayton: Johnston & Hoffman., Public domain · Oliver Gildart: Fleets, CC BY-SA 4.0
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Hindley is a built-up area of 24,485 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindley | 24,485 | — | — | B+ | — | D |
| Bickershaw | 2,277 | 1.2 | — | B+ | — | D |
| Platt Bridge and Abram | 10,587 | 1.8 | — | A− | — | D− |
| Westhoughton | 21,969 | 2 | — | D | — | C |
| Ince-in-Makerfield | 12,186 | 2.1 | — | A | — | D− |
| Wingates | 1,936 | 2.4 | — | C | — | D |
| Leigh | 45,499 | 2.7 | — | A− | — | D |
| Aspull | 4,937 | 2.9 | — | B+ | — | C |
Bickershaw and Wingates have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Bickershaw, Platt Bridge and Abram, Westhoughton, Ince-in-Makerfield, Wingates, Leigh and Aspull have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
At the 2021 Census, 11% of Hindley’s 24,485 residents were 15 to 24 and 21% were 65 or over, against 12% and 18% across England’s towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Hindley 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 £196,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £100,000, terraced houses £143,000, semi-detached houses £208,000 and detached houses £283,000.
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.