Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
46% of households own their home outright. The town has 12,963 residents and lies in Greater Manchester, North West.
On jobs & income it is strong — the mean household earns £52,634 a year. It also does well on walkability: on the way to work, 19% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Prices are high against local incomes (D): a typical home costs £344,000 and rent runs £1,119 a month. Health is weaker too: life expectancy 77.9 for men, 82.8 for women. Its other grades sit near the middle: B− for schools and B for hazard risk.
Figures: income and life expectancy, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Marple has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Marple 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 Marple is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Marple has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 45 buildings inside Marple’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade II*, and 1 scheduled monument.
20% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1911.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Marple. Best known first.
Historic house · National TrustLyme Hall4.2 km outside town, to the south
MuseumChadkirk Chapel700 m outside town, to the northwest
MuseumAnson Engine Museum3.2 km outside town, to the south
MuseumHat Works4.7 km outside town, to the west
Art galleryStockport War Memorial Art Gallery4.4 km outside town, to the west
MuseumStaircase House4.4 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Marple.
79% of households own their home, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (58%) and England’s towns (61%). Council and housing-body homes hold 10% of households. The £344,000 median rests on 553 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £499,975 | 146 |
| Semi-detached | £350,000 | 216 |
| Terraced | £275,000 | 129 |
| Flat or maisonette | £175,000 | 62 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Secondary results at the 3 secondary schools within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 46.3, with 47% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Marple Hall School’s results beat 82% of schools in England like it. Three in five pupils at the 23 primary schools within 3 km met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rose Hill Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 538 | C |
| Marple Hall SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,590 | A− |
At 48.2, the median resident of Marple sits in the middle of the age range. People aged 15 to 24 make up nearly a tenth of the town. 16% are under 15, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (18%). Degrees are held by 42% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Marple | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.2% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 27% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 14% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.9% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 42% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 39% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
About 17% of its commuters stay in Marple for work. For every resident in work, Marple has 0.6 jobs. Nearly four in five commuters drove, above Greater Manchester’s towns (72%) and England’s towns (70%) 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.
Grade II* covers 1 of them. Homes from before 1919 make up a fifth of the total, close to Greater Manchester’s towns (20%) and above England’s towns (16%). One scheduled monument lies in Marple.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
3 GP practices serve the town; 92% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Marple is Stepping Hill Hospital, 2.7 miles away. At the census, 5.3% of people here described their health as bad or very bad.
| Census 2021 | Marple | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.3% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 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.
45 listed buildings in Marple.
Church of St Martin: Photo: Hassocks5489 · CC0 · Lockside Mill: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Toll House Opposite Top Lock: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Council Offices: Photo: Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0
5 notable people were born in Marple.
Mabel Hardie: unknown - Mabel Hardie in 1887 or 1888, Public domain · Timmy Mallett: Dave Smith from Leicester, UK, CC BY 2.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marple | 12,963 | — | — | D | — | C+ |
| Marple Bridge | 4,702 | 1.1 | — | D− | — | A+ |
| Romiley | 10,902 | 1.7 | — | D | — | C |
| High Lane | 4,617 | 2 | — | D− | — | B− |
| Hazel Grove | 20,163 | 2.5 | — | D | — | B |
| Bredbury and Woodley | 17,044 | 2.6 | — | C | — | C− |
| Disley | 3,891 | 2.8 | A | C | A− | A |
| New Mills | 9,195 | 3.3 | B | B | C+ | C+ |
Marple Bridge, Romiley, High Lane, Hazel Grove and Bredbury and Woodley 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 Marple has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Band D council tax in Marple is £2,619 for 2026–27, more than in 88% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Town in Greater Manchester, England
Marple is a built-up area of 12,963 people, in the Stockport 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.