Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
3,622 people live in this town in Gwynedd, Wales.
Cheap to live in, with trade-offs. Jobs and pay trail most towns (D−): the mean household earns £42,977 a year. Pwllheli grades C overall, better than 27% of UK towns, and ranks #11 of 13 in Gwynedd. Safety lags (D): police record 52.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, and 15.2 home and vehicle crimes. Set beside UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, its crime per resident is higher than in 94%. A median £191,500 buys a home here, 4.3 times what households in the Gwynedd council area earn in a year. Getting around on foot or by bus is easy: 29% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. It also trails on hazard risk (D): 6.1% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Natural Resources Wales.
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 Pwllheli 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 Pwllheli is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists 121 buildings inside Pwllheli’s built-up area.
43% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 2 old photos and postcards going back to 1860 and a map from 1834.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Pwllheli.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Pwllheli has 334 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than both Gwynedd’s towns (76) and Wales’s towns (18). Homes from before 1919 make up 43% of the total. None of the 121 listed buildings reaches Grade II* or Grade I; all are Grade II.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Below are two of them, each with why it was picked. Between them, one primary and one secondary teach 727 pupils in Pwllheli. Two of them are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ysgol CymerauLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 253 | – |
| Ysgol Glan y MorLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 474 | – |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 16% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
46% of commuters travelled under 5 km, above Gwynedd’s towns (39%) and Wales’s towns (41%) alike. Home was the main workplace for 16% of workers at the census. Also worth knowing: in 2026, 4.3% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 34.1 reports per 1,000, above Gwynedd’s towns (15) and Wales’s towns (10.4) alike. The 12 months to August 2026 brought 401 recorded crimes inside Pwllheli’s built-up area, and 104 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence and sexual offences were nearly half of the crimes.
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 · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Private renters make up nearly a quarter of households, higher than both Gwynedd’s towns (17%) and Wales’s towns (17%). Nearly a quarter of households live in social housing. Behind the median of £191,500: 114 standard sales inside Pwllheli’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £305,000 | 25 |
| Semi-detached | £262,500 | 18 |
| Terraced | £159,750 | 58 |
| Flat or maisonette | £112,000 | 13 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
One GP practice serves the town. Women here live to 82.6 on average and men to 78.9 (2019–23). At the census, 20% of people here had a disability, about level with Gwynedd’s towns (20%) and below Wales’s towns (22%).
| Census 2021 | Pwllheli | Gwynedd | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 80% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.5% | 5.5% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 20% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · These answers aren’t adjusted for age, so young towns look healthier; the Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy.
Degrees are held by 26% of adults, below both Gwynedd’s towns (32%) and Wales’s towns (31%). Ages in Pwllheli split evenly at 45.4: half are older, half younger. Those 65 and older account for nearly a quarter of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Pwllheli | Gwynedd | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 22% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 18% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.6% | 6.1% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 19% | 17% |
| Degree level | 26% | 32% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Gwynedd and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
121 listed buildings in Pwllheli.
Pwllheli Railway Station: Photo: mattbuck ( category ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Capel Salem: Photo: Tom Parnell from Scottish Borders, Scotland · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Crown Hotel: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Town Hall: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0
10 notable people were born in Pwllheli.
Owain Owain: Llywelyn2000, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hywel Williams: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0 · William Tudor Howell: Daniel Rees, Public domain · Don Punch: Perizyde, CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
121 on Cadw’s list. That is 13.7 times the typical UK town for its size.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on Natural Resources Wales’s flood risk service.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £191,500, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £112,000, terraced houses £159,750, semi-detached houses £262,500 and detached houses £305,000.
Town in Gwynedd, Wales
Pwllheli is a built-up area of 3,622 people, in the Gwynedd 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.