Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a town of 11,416 residents in Greater Manchester, North West.
Walkability is its strong suit (B+): on the way to work, 17% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Housing is expensive: a typical home costs £194,282 and rent runs £931 a month. It lags on health as well (C): life expectancy 77.7 for men, 82.1 for women. Jobs & income is weaker too: mean household income £46,665; 4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
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 Mossley has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Mossley is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Mossley has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Mossley does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 32 buildings inside Mossley’s built-up area.
43% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →32 listed buildings in Mossley.
Huddersfield Narrow Canal Winterford Bridge and Lock Number W14: Photo: John Slater · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St John the Baptist: Photo: David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Former Mossley Town Hall: Photo: Richard Brierley · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St George: Photo: Gerald England · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Mossley.
15% of households live in social housing. Half of the 486 standard sales inside Mossley’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 went for more than £194,282. Private renters make up a fifth of households, below Greater Manchester’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (21%) alike.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £350,000 | 39 |
| Semi-detached | £263,500 | 105 |
| Terraced | £180,000 | 299 |
| Flat or maisonette | £139,000 | 43 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Three of its 6 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Milton St John's CofE Primary School’s results beat 81% of schools in England like it. GCSE results at the 8 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 43.5.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Livingstone Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 218 | A− |
| Mossley Hollins High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 894 | B |
| Milton St John's CofE Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 207 | A− |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Historic England’s list names 32 listed buildings in Mossley, every one Grade II. Conservation areas cover 1% of the town’s land, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (3%) and England’s towns (7%). Per 10,000 residents, Mossley counts 28 listed buildings.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
3 GP practices serve the town; 86% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Mossley is Tameside General Hospital, 2.3 miles away. 19% of residents have a disability, about level with Greater Manchester’s towns (18%) and above England’s towns (17%).
| Census 2021 | Mossley | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.5% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 29% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
80% of commuters drove, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (72%) and England’s towns (70%). Work in town: 9% of resident commuters. Jobs per working resident: 0.3.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The middle age in Mossley is 41. 18% of residents are children under 15. Those 65 and older account for 17% of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Mossley | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.2% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 17% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 16% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.2% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 33% | 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 Mossley. Best known first.
CastleBuckton Castle500 m outside town, to the southeast
Art galleryGallery Oldham4.2 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumSaddleworth Museum2.1 km outside town, to the northeastMuseumMuseumAstley Cheetham Art Gallery2.8 km outside town, to the southMuseumMuseumMuseum of the Manchester Regiment3.9 km outside town, to the southwestChurchChurchSt Paul's Church, Oldham4.1 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
10 notable people were born in Mossley.
Ernest Sykes: Christina Broom, Public domain
Town in Greater Manchester, England
Mossley is a built-up area of 11,416 people, in the Tameside 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mossley | 11,416 | — | — | D | — | C |
| Lees | 12,641 | 1.9 | — | D | — | C− |
| Stalybridge | 26,850 | 2.1 | — | D | — | D |
| Uppermill | 11,207 | 2.2 | — | D− | — | A− |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | 48,595 | 2.7 | — | D | — | D− |
| Dobcross | 1,569 | 2.8 | — | D− | — | A− |
| Oldham | 110,722 | 3.1 | — | C− | — | D− |
| Delph | 2,282 | 3.5 | — | D− | — | B+ |
Dobcross and Delph have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Lees, Stalybridge, Uppermill, Ashton-under-Lyne, Dobcross, Oldham and Delph 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 Mossley 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 £194,282, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £139,000, terraced houses £180,000, semi-detached houses £263,500 and detached houses £350,000. Household incomes are lower than in 74% of UK towns, so cost of living grades D.
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.