Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A village of 2,310 in Gwent, Wales.
Usk has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Its strongest subject is safety (B+): 18.5 violent and sexual offences and 8.1 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026. Its weakest is hazard risk (C−): 2.9% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. The median home sold for £320,000 in the last three years, 6.4 times what households in the Monmouthshire council area earn in a year.
This town's Health Grade uses ONS's small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for 2019 to 2023, and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. English towns' grades also use OHID's small-area early deaths, hospital admissions and child obesity, which OHID publishes for England only.
The 3 things Usk does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Wales), ordered by how far Usk is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists them inside Usk’s built-up area, along with 2 scheduled monuments.
26% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Usk.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
In the comparison, Usk comes above both Gwent’s towns (11) and Wales’s towns (18). Usk’s listed buildings include Castle House, Grade I. Usk has 171 listed buildings on Cadw’s list: 3 Grade I, 9 Grade II*.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Its one school is below. Wales publishes no school-level results, so its schools have no letters.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usk C.V.. Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 261 | – |
For Usk, that is above both Gwent’s towns (20%) and Wales’s towns (21%). Children under 15 make up 8.6% of residents. Half the people of Usk are older than 52.8.
44% women, 56% men
About 80 women for every 100 men. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women. A large institution, such as a prison, barracks, boarding school, university or care home, can tilt a town’s split: the census counts the people living there as residents.
| Usk | Gwent | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 8.6% | 18% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 7% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 26% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 32% | 20% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 16% | 23% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.1% | 5.4% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Degree level | 41% | 28% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Gwent and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Half the homes sold went for more than £320K, above both Gwent’s towns (£188K) and Wales’s towns (£195K). Social housing holds 13% of households.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £545,000 | 33 |
| Semi-detached | £317,500 | 46 |
| Terraced | £289,500 | 32 |
| Flat or maisonette | £115,000 | 21 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Police recorded 100 crimes inside Usk’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 19 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences were 43% of the crimes; the police category includes harassment and stalking, so it runs higher than U.S. “violent crime”.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL
Women here live to 85.3 on average and men to 82 (2019–23). The nearest A&E to Usk is The Grange University Hospital, 5.7 miles away. One GP practice serves the town.
| Census 2021 | Usk | Gwent | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.8% | 7.7% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 21% | 22% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · 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.
Usk sits below both Gwent’s towns (3.2%) and Wales’s towns (3%) on this measure. For 23% of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Usk. Best known first.
CastleUsk Castle100 m outside town, to the northwest
CastleLlangibby Castle3 km outside town, to the southwestAttractionAttractionTank School3.8 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
15 notable people were born in Usk.
Sydenham Edwards: Sydenham Edwards (1768-1819), Public domain · Paul Murphy: Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usk | 2,310 | — | — | C− | B+ | B |
| Penperlleni | 1,396 | 4.4 | — | C− | A− | B+ |
| Raglan | 1,176 | 4.7 | — | C− | B | B |
| Pontypool | 29,070 | 5.7 | D− | B− | D | D |
| Ponthir | 1,260 | 6 | — | D | B+ | B |
| Caerleon | 7,329 | 6.6 | C− | C | C− | B− |
| Cwmbrân | 47,075 | 6.6 | D− | C+ | D | D |
| Langstone | 2,912 | 6.7 | C+ | D | C+ | A− |
Penperlleni, Raglan and Ponthir have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
171 on Cadw’s list, 3 of them Grade I and 9 Grade II*. That is 30.4 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Castle House. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on Natural Resources Wales’s flood risk service.
Village in Gwent, Wales
Usk is a built-up area of 2,310 people, in the Monmouthshire 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
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) · Cadw listed buildings, scheduled monuments and registered historic parks and gardens via DataMapWales, 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.