Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a large town of 22,193 residents in Greater Manchester, North West.
Whitefield’s strongest subject is walkability: just over a fifth of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Homes are dear: homes sell for a median £262,500, about 5.5 times local household income. Elsewhere it is close to typical: C+ for schools and B− for hazard risk. It lags on health as well — life expectancy is 79 for men and 82.1 for women.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency · life expectancy, ONS. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Whitefield has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Whitefield is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Whitefield has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Every other subject still has a grade below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The thing Whitefield does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 11 buildings inside Whitefield’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
9% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →11 listed buildings in Whitefield, 1 of them Grade I.
Whitefield War Memorial: Photo: David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Besses United Reformed Church Including All Associated Buildings on Island Site: Photo: Mike Faherty · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Whitefield.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Whitefield’s listed buildings include the Church of All Saints, Grade I. Homes from before 1919 make up nearly a tenth of the total, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (16%). Per 10,000 residents, Whitefield counts 5 listed buildings.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Three of its 10 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. St Bernadette's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy’s results beat 85% of schools in England like it. Between them, eight primaries and one secondary teach 3,093 pupils in Whitefield.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higher Lane Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 491 | C+ |
| Philips High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 868 | C+ |
| St Bernadette's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary AcademyTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 339 | A |
Owners make up 66% of households, above both Greater Manchester’s towns (58%) and England’s towns (61%). Private rents average £969 a month across the Bury council area. 717 standard sales inside Whitefield’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £262,500.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £477,500 | 128 |
| Semi-detached | £276,000 | 303 |
| Terraced | £217,000 | 222 |
| Flat or maisonette | £163,500 | 64 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
2 GP practices serve the town; 72% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Whitefield is North Manchester General Hospital, 3.2 miles away. 19% of residents have a disability, near Greater Manchester’s towns (18%) and higher than England’s towns (17%).
| Census 2021 | Whitefield | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.8% | 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 35% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Household income came to £47K a year before tax, about level with Greater Manchester’s towns (£46K) and below England’s towns (£55K). Of the commuters living in Whitefield, 10% work in the town itself. There are 0.5 jobs in Whitefield for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The middle age in Whitefield is 40.3. Degrees are held by just over a third of adults, higher than Greater Manchester’s towns (32%) and near England’s towns (34%). Those 65 and older account for 18% of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Whitefield | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 18% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.4% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 34% | 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 Whitefield. Best known first.
Historic houseHeaton Park1 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumMuseum of Transport Greater Manchester4.8 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumHeaton Park Tramway1.4 km outside town, to the southeast
Art galleryBury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre3.3 km outside town, to the north
MuseumThe Fusilier Museum3.3 km outside town, to the north
MuseumBury Transport Museum3.6 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
8 notable people were born in Whitefield.
Cecil Howard Green: A.T. Service, CC BY-SA 3.0 · David Ball: Jon Candy, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Marcus Sheff: GHK54, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Derek Hilton: Nzwriter, CC BY-SA 4.0
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Whitefield is a built-up area of 22,193 people, in the Bury 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitefield | 22,193 | — | — | C− | — | C− |
| Simister | 1,054 | 1.4 | — | D | — | C |
| Prestwich | 31,509 | 1.5 | — | D | — | C− |
| Radcliffe | 31,114 | 2 | — | C+ | — | D |
| Rhodes | 2,970 | 2.5 | — | C− | — | D |
| Pendlebury | 1,768 | 2.7 | — | D− | — | D |
| Clifton | 17,748 | 2.7 | — | D | — | C− |
| Bury | 81,115 | 3.2 | — | C | — | C− |
Simister and Pendlebury have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Simister, Prestwich, Radcliffe, Rhodes, Pendlebury, Clifton and Bury 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 Whitefield has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Band D council tax in Whitefield is £2,555 for 2026–27, more than in 77% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
GCSE results trail 58% of towns in England, and primary results trail 53% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
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.