Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
41,728 people call this large town in Greater Manchester, North West home.
Urmston’s strongest is schools: primary results beat just over nine in ten towns in England; secondary results beat 88% of towns in England. Getting around on foot or by bus is easy: 18% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Where it falls short is cost of living: a typical home costs £331,500 and rent runs £1,369 a month. Health is weaker too — life expectancy 79.4 for men, 83.5 for women.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy, ONS. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Urmston 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 Urmston is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Urmston has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 2 things Urmston does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 15 buildings inside Urmston’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade II*.
16% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →15 listed buildings in Urmston.
Yew Tree Farmhouse: Photo: Tanglimara1234 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Flixton House and Outbuilding Adjoining Immediately North of Flixton House: Photo: BarriePrice100 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Larkrise: Photo: Tanglimara1234 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Davyhulme Circle War Memorial: Photo: Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Urmston.
Our Lady of the Rosary RC Primary School, a Voluntary Academy’s results beat 98% of schools in England like it. Three of its 18 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. At the town’s 12 primary schools, 72% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davyhulme Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 511 | A+ |
| Urmston Grammar AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,137 | A+ |
| Our Lady of the Rosary RC Primary School, a Voluntary AcademyTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 230 | A+ |
Renting privately is how just over one in ten households live. 1,535 standard sales inside Urmston’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £331,500. It is the 13th most expensive of 81 towns of 2,500+ in Greater Manchester.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £475,000 | 200 |
| Semi-detached | £340,000 | 828 |
| Terraced | £302,500 | 357 |
| Flat or maisonette | £165,000 | 150 |
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 1 of them. Urmston has 4 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents. 16% of its homes were built before 1919, about level with England’s towns (16%) and below Greater Manchester’s towns (20%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 36% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Urmston counts 1.7 jobs per working resident. 36% of workers worked mainly from home, above Greater Manchester’s towns (29%) and England’s towns (31%) alike. A household here earns £52K a year before tax, on average. Of the commuters living in the town, 27% work in the town itself.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
4 GP practices serve the town; 83% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Urmston is Salford Royal Hospital, 3.1 miles away. 18% of residents have a disability, in line with Greater Manchester’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (17%).
| Census 2021 | Urmston | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.1% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 18% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
People 65 and over make up just over a fifth of the town, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). One measure of family life: 17% of residents are under 15. Urmston has a median age of 44.5 years. Graduates make up 36% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Urmston | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.5% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 21% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.3% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 36% | 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 Urmston. Best known first.
Historic houseFlixton Housein town
MuseumImperial War Museum North2.7 km outside town, to the northeast · 2K visitors a year
Garden · RHSRHS Garden Bridgewater4 km outside town, to the north
Art galleryThe Lowry2.9 km outside town, to the northeast
Historic house · RHSWorsley New Hall4.1 km outside town, to the north
MuseumBritish Muslim Heritage Centre4.2 km outside town, to the eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
12 notable people were born in Urmston.
Peter Noone: Cindy Funk, CC BY 2.0 · Keith Hopwood: NBC Television, Public domain · Chris Morton: Lawson Speedway, Public domain
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Urmston is a built-up area of 41,728 people, in the Trafford 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urmston | 41,728 | — | — | C− | — | C |
| Stretford | 28,010 | 2.2 | — | C | — | C− |
| Eccles | 41,116 | 2.3 | — | D− | — | D− |
| Irlam | 19,714 | 2.6 | — | D | — | D |
| Sale | 62,545 | 2.7 | — | D | — | B− |
| Partington | 7,706 | 3.6 | — | B− | — | D− |
| Altrincham | 49,672 | 4 | — | D | — | B |
| Worsley | 11,958 | 4 | — | D− | — | A− |
Stretford, Eccles, Irlam, Sale, Partington, Altrincham and Worsley have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
GCSE results beat 88% of towns in England, and primary results beat 91% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Urmston has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Band D council tax in Urmston is £2,290 for 2026–27, less than in 76% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
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.