Photo: Tricia Neal · CC BY-SA 2.0How Greater Manchester stacks up
Greater Manchester is home to some of the best-ranked towns in the UK: Hale for incomes and Bowdon for schools (#3). Alongside easy getting about (24% of commuters on foot, bike, bus or train) and little flood risk, it has high costs against local pay and shorter healthy lives (62.3 years of healthy life expectancy). It has no overall grade: police.uk carries no street-level crime from Greater Manchester Police, so there is no Safety grade to weigh.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
Not gradedNot graded: no police.uk data. Greater Manchester Police has published no street-level crime to police.uk since its 2019 records-system change, so neither the county nor its towns have a Safety grade, and without one there is no overall grade.
Schools
30th of 90B+67/100 Somewhat above-average schools. Bowdon is among the ten best towns in the UK for schools (#3). 64% of pupils leave primary school at the expected standard (15th highest), and GCSE pupils average an Attainment 8 score of 46.5 (17th highest).
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 46.5, 17th highest. The grade weighs primary and GCSE results equally.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 81 Greater Manchester towns.
Cost of living
76th of 98C−23/100 Harder to afford than most areas. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Manchester and Bolton sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. Homes cost 5.4 times what the average household takes in a year: a typical sale of £244,000 against income of £45,100. Every neighbour scores higher, Lancashire, Cheshire and West Yorkshire among them.
Typical sale price: £244,000 (26,496 sales, 40th highest).
Private rent £1,066 a month (27th highest); Band D council tax £2,434 (33rd highest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 81 Greater Manchester towns.
Health
75th of 98C−24/100 Less healthy than most areas. Greater Manchester ranks 9th shortest for healthy life expectancy, at 62.3 years. 53% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Manchester and Rochdale.
Life expectancy at birth: 78.9 years, 2nd shortest.
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 81 Greater Manchester towns.
Jobs & income
61st of 98C+38/100 Incomes a notch below average. Few places anywhere beat Hale, first of 2,156 towns for incomes. Households take in £45,100 a year on average before tax, against £55,600 across England and Wales (35th lowest of 98 areas). Incomes and work tell different stories: 35th lowest household income, but the 5th highest share claiming out-of-work benefits (4.9%).
Claimant rate: 4.9% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 5th highest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Measure: our Jobs & income grade: household income. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,156 graded towns. 81 Greater Manchester towns.
Getting about
18th of 98A−82/100 Easier to get about than most. About 2 in 10 commuters leave the car at home here (18th highest). Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Salford ranks highest, at #35.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 29% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 81 Greater Manchester towns.
Flood risk
21st of 87A−76/100 Fairly sheltered from flooding. 1.0% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, against 1.6% across England and Wales (17th lowest). Town by town it lands near the middle, with Shevington Moor its best at #111 of 2,452.
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 81 Greater Manchester towns.
Growth
17th of 98A−84/100 Growing faster than most. ONS estimates put 3.01 million people here in 2024, +12.1% on 2011 (15th fastest). No neighbour beats it on growth; West Yorkshire comes closest. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Salford ranks highest, at #38.
Since the 2021 Census: +4.9%, 8th fastest.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 69 Greater Manchester towns.
How Greater Manchester compares to its neighbours
Greater Manchester beats every neighbour on growth; on cost of living, every neighbour beats it.
| Greater Manchester | Lancashire | Cheshire | West Yorkshire | Derbyshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | No overall grade | C 2748th of 65 | B 6424th of 65 | C+ 3940th of 65 | C 3046th of 65 |
| Safety | Not graded | C− 1758th official · 24% in top towns | C+ 4237th official · 26% in top towns | D 664th official · 11% in top towns | C− 2157th official · 25% in top towns |
| Schools | B+ 6715th official · 14% in top towns | B− 4733rd official · 12% in top towns | A− 816th official · 30% in top towns | B 6123rd official · 13% in top towns | C 2643rd official · 7% in top towns |
| Cost of living | C− 2373rd official · 6% in top towns | B− 5335th official · 36% in top towns | C 3368th official · 28% in top towns | B− 5442nd official · 47% in top towns | B 5749th official · 69% in top towns |
| Health | C− 2447th official · 10% in top towns | C 3344th official · 13% in top towns | A− 7519th official · 29% in top towns | C 3246th official · 13% in top towns | B− 4640th official · 19% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C+ 3864th official · 12% in top towns | C 2578th official · 9% in top towns | B+ 6936th official · 20% in top towns | C+ 4154th official · 13% in top towns | B− 4846th official · 11% in top towns |
| Getting about | A− 8218th official · 21% in top towns | B 6157th official · 4% in top towns | C 2668th official · 0% in top towns | A− 8031st official · 25% in top towns | C 2767th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | A− 7617th official · 31% in top towns | C− 1541st official · 11% in top towns | A− 7820th official · 40% in top towns | C+ 4121st official · 13% in top towns | B 6229th official · 29% in top towns |
| Growth | A− 8415th official · 33% in top towns | B 6234th official · 17% in top towns | B+ 6623rd official · 15% in top towns | B+ 7337th official · 37% in top towns | C+ 4344th official · 3% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.