Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a city of 110,722 residents in Greater Manchester, North West.
Fewer journeys need a car: 25% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. The median home sold for £165,000, 3.9 times what households in the Oldham council area earn in a year. Health outcomes fall short of most towns: men here can expect to live to 74, women to 78.2. It lags on jobs & income as well (D) — mean household income £38,508; 9.4% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · claimants, DWP. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Oldham has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Oldham 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 Oldham is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Oldham has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 86 buildings inside Oldham’s built-up area, 4 of them Grade II*.
32% 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 1866.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Oldham. Best known first.
Art galleryGallery Oldhamin town
CastleBuckton Castle3.9 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumSaddleworth Museum3.9 km outside town, to the east
MuseumEllenroad Steam Museum3.9 km outside town, to the northChurchChurchSt Paul's Church, Oldhamin townChurchChurchSt. Thomas Church, Wernethin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Oldham.
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 6.8% of the town. At the census, nearly four fifths of people in Oldham called their health good or very good, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (81%) and England’s towns (82%). 20 GP practices serve the town; 74% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Oldham | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.8% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 18% | 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.
Oldham’s 37 primaries and five secondaries have 18,334 pupils between them. The Blue Coat CofE School’s results beat nearly nine in ten schools in England like it. Of its 47 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. Attainment 8 at the town’s 4 secondary schools averages 44.6, and 39% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coppice Primary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 525 | C− |
| The Blue Coat CofE SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,702 | A |
| St Martin's CofE Junior Infant and Nursery SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 225 | A |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 16% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working from home was the norm for 16% of workers at the census. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 54%, above Greater Manchester’s towns (47%) and England’s towns (45%) alike. There are 1.3 jobs in Oldham for each resident in work. 36% of commuters who live in Oldham also work there.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Home ownership stands at 46% of households. Private rents average £942 a month across the Oldham council area. From September 2023 to August 2026, 1,775 homes sold inside the town’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £165,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £305,000 | 211 |
| Semi-detached | £200,000 | 519 |
| Terraced | £140,000 | 1,012 |
| Flat or maisonette | £94,161 | 33 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 4 of them. Oldham counts 86 listed buildings on the national list (Historic England): 4 Grade II*. Also worth knowing: 2 registered parks and gardens lie in the town.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Degrees are held by a fifth of adults. One in ten residents are 65 or over, lower than both Greater Manchester’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). Those aged 15 to 24 account for 15% of residents. The age that splits Oldham in two is 31.6.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Oldham | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 26% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 15% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 21% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 10% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 31% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 20% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
86 listed buildings in Oldham.
Church of St Mary and St Peter: Photo: Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Hathershaw Hall and Hathershaw Cottage: Photo: RevDave · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Independent Methodist Chapel: Photo: Andrew Fielding · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Town Hall: Photo: Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0
280 notable people were born in Oldham.
Brian Cox: Duncan.Hull, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Olivia Cooke: Patrick.suechan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ian Kershaw: Amrei-Marie; cropped by Beyond My Ken 05:47, 1 May 2015 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carl Cox: Str1ke from (optional), CC BY 2.0 · Bernard Cribbins: Brian Minkoff London Pixels, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mark Owen: Marc E., 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldham | 110,722 | — | — | C− | — | D− |
| Lees | 12,641 | 1.7 | — | D | — | C− |
| Chadderton | 37,602 | 1.8 | — | D | — | D |
| Royton | 22,997 | 2.1 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Woodhouses | 1,094 | 2.6 | — | D− | — | C |
| Failsworth | 19,962 | 2.9 | — | D | — | D |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | 48,595 | 2.9 | — | D | — | D− |
| Mossley | 11,416 | 3.1 | — | D | — | C |
Woodhouses has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Lees, Chadderton, Royton, Woodhouses, Failsworth, Ashton-under-Lyne and Mossley have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
GCSE results trail 66% of towns in England, and primary results trail 89% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £165,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £94,161, terraced houses £140,000, semi-detached houses £200,000 and detached houses £305,000. Household incomes are lower than in 97% of UK towns, so cost of living grades C−.
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Oldham has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
City in Greater Manchester, England
Oldham is a built-up area of 110,722 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.