Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0How Gwent stacks up
In Gwent, no subject stands out: its best grade is a B. On growth, Gwent is a county of two halves: 28% of town residents live in top-quarter towns such as Newport and Cwmbrân, and 59% in bottom-quarter ones such as Caerphilly and Pontypool. That leaves it 64th of 65 graded areas, with a D− (2 of 100).
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
64th of 65D−2/100 Among the areas with the most recorded crime. 54% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Newport and Cwmbrân. Gwent records 45.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 people a year, against 37.9 across England and Wales. It trails all of its neighbours on safety.
With theft, burglary and the rest counted too, 99 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 7th highest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 38 Gwent towns.
The big places weigh on the total
At the quiet end sit Pen-pedair-heol (#357), Undy and Magor (#423) and Rogerstone (#477) of 2,138 towns. The busiest quarter for recorded crime takes in Ebbw Vale, Tredegar and Blackwood.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| Gwent | 5% | 54% |
Town centres and the people who live there
police.uk places every crime at a street or public place near where it happened, never an address, and we count it where that point falls. The county figure counts violent and sexual offences everywhere in Gwent, including town centres, stations and shopping streets. Town grades count the crimes that touch residents where they live (violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage), so a town with a busy centre is not marked down for its shoplifting.
Schools
Not gradedNot graded: Wales publishes no school results. Wales publishes no school-by-school or county test results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties, like Welsh towns, have no Schools grade. Their overall grade weighs the other subjects.
Cost of living
63rd of 98C+36/100 A bit expensive for what people earn. Over five years, typical prices have risen 19%. A typical home sold for £223,000 over the past year, 5.0 times the average household’s income (43rd highest of 98 areas). Town by town it lands near the middle, with New Tredegar its best at #369 of 2,515.
The middle home sold for £223,000 over the past year, 48th highest of the areas.
Private rent £854 a month (37th lowest); Band D council tax £2,200 (35th lowest). 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. 38 Gwent towns.
Health
80th of 98C−19/100 Less healthy than most areas. Of a life expectancy of 79.4 years, 61.9 are expected in good health (7th shortest among the areas). Newport and Cwmbrân weigh on the town measure; 80% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places.
Total life expectancy is 79.4 years (11th 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. 38 Gwent towns.
Jobs & income
89th of 98D9/100 Jobs and pay are the weak spot. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Newport and Cwmbrân sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. At £44,400 a year, household incomes here are the 28th lowest of 98 areas. It trails all of its neighbours on incomes.
Claimant rate: 3.7% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 21st 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. 38 Gwent towns.
Getting about
85th of 98D13/100 More car-dependent than most areas. Gwent ranks 16th lowest for getting to work without a car: 13% of commuters walk, cycle or ride. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Monmouth comes closest, at #576 of 2,515.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 25% 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. 38 Gwent towns.
Flood risk
41st of 87B−53/100 Middle of the table on flooding. 1.2% 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 (23rd lowest). No neighbour beats it on flood risk; Mid Glamorgan comes closest. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Nantyglo its best at #456 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. 38 Gwent towns.
Growth
40th of 98B60/100 Growing overall, unusually split. From Newport to Caerphilly, its towns sit at both ends of the ranking. Gwent grew 4.3% from 2011 to 2024, against 10.0% for England and Wales.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +2.3% (45th slowest).
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. 30 Gwent towns. Covers 93% of residents of Gwent’s graded towns.
How Gwent compares to its neighbours
Against South Glamorgan, Mid Glamorgan, Powys, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, Gwent leads on flood risk but trails on safety and jobs and income.
| Gwent | South Glamorgan | Mid Glamorgan | Powys | Herefordshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | D− 264th of 65 | D 1456th of 65 | D 562nd of 65 | D 661st of 65 | C− 2251st of 65 |
| Safety | D− 261st official · 5% in top towns | C− 2141st official · 13% in top towns | C− 2350th official · 22% in top towns | D 1436th official · 0% in top towns | B 5813th official · 20% in top towns |
| Schools | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | C 3410th official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | C+ 3656th official · 18% in top towns | C− 1976th official · 1% in top towns | B− 5231st official · 29% in top towns | C 3484th official · 55% in top towns | D 985th official · 0% in top towns |
| Health | C− 1949th official · 7% in top towns | C 3143rd official · 12% in top towns | D 655th official · 5% in top towns | B 6020th official · 14% in top towns | B 6215th official · 13% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | D 971st official · 3% in top towns | C+ 4239th official · 9% in top towns | C− 1584th official · 5% in top towns | D 1389th official · 0% in top towns | C 3245th official · 0% in top towns |
| Getting about | D 1383rd official · 0% in top towns | B+ 6612th official · 0% in top towns | D 1285th official · 0% in top towns | C− 2076th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 4149th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B− 5323rd official · 21% in top towns | C 3414th official · 2% in top towns | C+ 3634th official · 21% in top towns | C− 1943rd official · 14% in top towns | D 1047th official · 13% in top towns |
| Growth | B 6065th official · 28% in top towns | B− 4529th official · 0% in top towns | C− 2169th official · 0% in top towns | D 1183rd official · 0% in top towns | C 3467th official |
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.