Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
12,641 people call this town in Greater Manchester, North West home.
Lees’s strongest is schools — primary results beat nearly four fifths of towns in England; secondary results beat 46% of towns in England. Housing is expensive: a typical home costs £214,000 and rent runs £942 a month. Health is weaker too: life expectancy 78 for men, 81.2 for women. Work and incomes lag: mean household income £46,683; 3% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
Figures: 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 Lees has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
The 3 things Lees 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 Lees is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Lees has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 35 buildings inside Lees’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade II*.
29% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Lees.
16% rent privately, below Greater Manchester’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (21%) alike. Social housing holds 11% of households. Also worth knowing: the median sale, £214,000, comes from 531 standard sales inside Lees’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £375,000 | 83 |
| Semi-detached | £246,000 | 181 |
| Terraced | £170,000 | 243 |
| Flat or maisonette | £149,000 | 24 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
At the town’s 5 primary schools, 67% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Two of its 6 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. GCSE results at the 8 secondary schools within 3 km: 44% of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 45.2.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hey-with-Zion Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 281 | B− |
| St Thomas' Leesfield CofE Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 200 | A− |
2 GP practices serve the town; 83% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 5.1% of people here described their health as bad or very bad. Nearly a fifth of residents in Lees live with a disability.
| Census 2021 | Lees | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.1% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 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. Homes from before 1919 make up 29% of the total, above Greater Manchester’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (16%) alike. Lees has 35 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 1 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · 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.
Of the commuters living in Lees, 8% work in the town itself. By car: that was how 83% of commuters travelled at the census. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 51%, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (47%) and England’s towns (45%). Nearly a quarter of workers did their job mainly from home at the census.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
One measure of family life: 17% of residents are under 15. People aged 15 to 24 make up a tenth of the town, below Greater Manchester’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (12%) alike. The median resident of Lees is 44.4 years old. Degrees are held by 29% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Lees | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.8% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 22% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 17% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.9% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 20% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 29% | 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 Lees. Best known first.
CastleBuckton Castle3 km outside town, to the southeast
Art galleryGallery Oldham2 km outside town, to the west
MuseumSaddleworth Museum2.7 km outside town, to the eastChurchChurchSt Paul's Church, Oldham2.3 km outside town, to the westChurchChurchSt. Thomas Church, Werneth2.9 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumMuseum of the Manchester Regiment4.9 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
35 listed buildings in Lees.
The Grapes Inn and Adjoining Barn: Photo: JoeyFishBoy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Leesbrook Mill: Photo: Stephen Richards · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
8 notable people were born in Lees.
Annie Kenney: Colonel Linley Blathwayt, Public domain · Jenny Kenney: Colonel Linley Blathwayt, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lees | 12,641 | — | — | D | — | C− |
| Oldham | 110,722 | 1.7 | — | C− | — | D− |
| Mossley | 11,416 | 1.9 | — | D | — | C |
| Dobcross | 1,569 | 2.3 | — | D− | — | A− |
| Delph | 2,282 | 2.5 | — | D− | — | B+ |
| Uppermill | 11,207 | 2.5 | — | D− | — | A− |
| Royton | 22,997 | 2.9 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Shaw | 18,249 | 3.1 | — | D | — | C− |
Dobcross and Delph have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Oldham, Mossley, Dobcross, Delph, Uppermill, Royton and Shaw 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 Lees has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £214,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £149,000, terraced houses £170,000, semi-detached houses £246,000 and detached houses £375,000. Household incomes are lower than in 74% of UK towns, so cost of living grades D.
Town in Greater Manchester, England
Lees is a built-up area of 12,641 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.
