Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 26,850 residents, it is a large town in Greater Manchester, North West.
Stalybridge is easy to get around without a car: 18% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its weakest is cost of living: homes sell for a median £210,000, about 5 times local household income. Health is weaker too: men here can expect to live to 76.8, women to 80.5. Incomes are on the low side: households earn a mean £45,612 a year, and 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 Stalybridge has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its 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 Stalybridge is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Stalybridge has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Stalybridge does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 48 buildings inside Stalybridge’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade II*.
21% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →48 listed buildings in Stalybridge.
War Memorial, Trinity Street: Photo: Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Portico of Former Stalybridge Town Hall: Photo: Stevekraken · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Church of St Paul: Photo: Briangeorge1945 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Victoria Bridge: Photo: Gerald England · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Stalybridge.
22% live in social housing, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (18%). Private rents average £931 a month across the Tameside council area. Also worth knowing: from September 2023 to August 2026, 820 homes sold inside Stalybridge’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £210,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £408,750 | 144 |
| Semi-detached | £237,500 | 258 |
| Terraced | £176,500 | 321 |
| Flat or maisonette | £130,000 | 97 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
GCSE results at the town’s 2 secondary schools: nearly a third of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 41.1. St Raphael's Catholic Primary School’s results beat 97% of schools in England like it. Some 3,614 pupils attend Stalybridge’s 11 primaries and two secondaries. Below are three of its 13 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dixons Silver Springs PrimaryLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 427 | C |
| West Hill SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 852 | C |
| St Raphael's Catholic Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 212 | A+ |
5 GP practices serve the town; nearly nine in ten patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Four fifths of people in Stalybridge rate their own health good or very good. A disability affects 19% of people in the town.
| Census 2021 | Stalybridge | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6% | 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.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 26% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Work in town: 14% of resident commuters. Stalybridge counts 0.5 jobs per working resident. Walking ranked second among ways to work, at 9%.
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.
21% of its homes were built before 1919, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (16%). Grade II* covers 2 of them. One registered park or garden lies in Stalybridge.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Degrees are held by 27% of adults, below Greater Manchester’s towns (32%) and England’s towns (34%) alike. Typical age in Stalybridge: 41.1, the median. The under-15s are 19% of the population here.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Stalybridge | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 18% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 27% | 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 Stalybridge. Best known first.
CastleBuckton Castle300 m outside town, to the northeast
MuseumSaddleworth Museum4.3 km outside town, to the northMuseumMuseumMuseum of the Manchester Regiment1.4 km outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumPortland Basin Museum1.6 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
23 notable people were born in Stalybridge.
Rob Holding: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tim Willocks: McMarcoP, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Peter Kenyon: Рыбакова Елена, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Patrick Auld: Stump & Co., photographer, Public domain · William J. Porter: U.S. State Dept., Public domain · Derek Wilkinson: Jack de Nijs for Anefo, CC0
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Stalybridge is a built-up area of 26,850 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stalybridge | 26,850 | — | — | D | — | D |
| Dukinfield | 21,151 | 1.9 | — | D | — | D |
| Mossley | 11,416 | 2.1 | — | D | — | C |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | 48,595 | 2.1 | — | D | — | D− |
| Hattersley | 6,959 | 2.7 | — | D | — | D− |
| Hyde | 35,902 | 2.8 | — | D | — | D |
| Hadfield | 16,271 | 3.1 | B− | B+ | B+ | C− |
| Broadbottom | 1,001 | 3.5 | — | D− | — | C |
Broadbottom has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Dukinfield, Mossley, Ashton-under-Lyne, Hattersley, Hyde and Broadbottom have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Stalybridge 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 £210,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £130,000, terraced houses £176,500, semi-detached houses £237,500 and detached houses £408,750. Household incomes are lower than in 78% 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.