Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 1,993 people live in this village, in Gwynedd, Wales. Its listed buildings number 74, with 0 at Grade I.
Y Bala’s strongest is walkability: 34% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Incomes are on the low side (D): the mean household earns £46,083 a year. Hazard risk is higher than most (D−): one in ten homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Buying the median home, at £150,000, takes 3.4 years of household income in the Gwynedd council area.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Natural Resources Wales · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Below 2,500 residents there is no overall grade, so Y Bala has its subject grades alone.
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 Y Bala 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 Y Bala is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists them inside Y Bala’s built-up area, along with 1 scheduled monument.
34% 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 Y Bala.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 9 of them. Relative to its size, Y Bala keeps 371 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. Homes from before 1919 make up 34% of the total, between Gwynedd’s towns (40%) and Wales’s towns (27%). The town counts 74 listed buildings on the national list (Cadw): 9 Grade II*.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
It is shown below. Its one secondary school teaches 571 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ysgol Godre'r BerwynLargest secondary schoolAll-through | All-through | 571 | – |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 15% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
50% of commuters travelled under 5 km, higher than both Gwynedd’s towns (39%) and Wales’s towns (41%). The census counted 15% of workers working mainly from home. Of the commuters living in Y Bala, 46% work in the town itself. The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 2.5%.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
25% live in social housing, above both Gwynedd’s towns (19%) and Wales’s towns (18%). Private tenants account for 20% of households. 53 standard sales inside Y Bala’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £150,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £295,000 | 12 |
| Semi-detached | £146,500 | 8 |
| Terraced | £130,000 | 33 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
At the census, 82% of people in Y Bala called their health good or very good, above Gwynedd’s towns (80%) and Wales’s towns (78%) alike. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 4.2% of the town. The nearest A&E to Y Bala is Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, 25.4 miles away. Also worth knowing: men in Y Bala can expect to live to 81.4, women to 85.1 (2019–23).
| Census 2021 | Y Bala | Gwynedd | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 80% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.2% | 5.5% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 20% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, 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.
Among the 1,541 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, Y Bala has more crime per resident than just over four fifths of them. Violence came to 26.6 per 1,000 residents a year, below both Gwynedd’s towns (32) and Wales’s towns (33.8). A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 104 offences in Y Bala and 35 cases of nuisance behaviour. Of all the crimes, 48% were violence and sexual offences.
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.
People 65 and over make up 23% of the town, about level with Gwynedd’s towns (23%) and above Wales’s towns (21%). Typical age in Y Bala: 45.4, the median. Among adults, 30% have a degree.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Y Bala | Gwynedd | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 9.9% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 22% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 21% | 18% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.4% | 6.1% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 19% | 17% |
| Degree level | 30% | 32% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Gwynedd and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Y Bala. Best known first.
CastleTomen Y Balain town
Heritage railwayBala Lake Railway3.2 km outside town, to the southwestMuseumMuseumMary Jones World900 m outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
4 notable people were born in Y Bala.
Christopher Timothy: alh1, CC BY 2.0
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on Natural Resources Wales’s flood risk service.
74 on Cadw’s list, 9 of them Grade II*. That is 15.2 times the typical UK town for its size. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £150,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: terraced houses £130,000, semi-detached houses £146,500 and detached houses £295,000.
Village in Gwynedd, Wales
Y Bala is a built-up area of 1,993 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.