Photo: Dave Croker · CC BY-SA 2.0How Herefordshire stacks up
In Herefordshire, no subject stands out: its best grade is a B. Herefordshire ranks 51st overall, with a C− and a score of 22. Its weak spots are high costs against local pay and real flood risk.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
28th of 65B58/100 Low crime overall, less so in its towns. Violent crime runs at 26.9 offences per 1,000 residents a year, the 13th lowest rate of 65 areas with police.uk figures. The county total looks better than its towns do. Ledbury leads its towns at #990 of 2,138; 20% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
With theft, burglary and the rest counted too, 54 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 12th lowest.
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. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Few weak spots, town by town
At the quiet end sit Ross-on-Wye (#1,087), Hereford (#1,593) and Leominster (#1,718) of 2,138 towns. The county-wide rate ranks 13th lowest, but town by town it places 47th of 61.
| 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% | |
| Herefordshire | 20% | 0% |
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 Herefordshire, 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
60th of 90C34/100 Solid county results, weaker town schools. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Ledbury comes closest, at #555 of 2,331. 64% of pupils leave primary school at the expected standard (10th highest), and GCSE pupils average an Attainment 8 score of 45.7 (24th highest). The county total looks better than its towns do.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 45.7, 24th highest. The grade weighs primary and GCSE results equally.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Cost of living
89th of 98D9/100 Among the least affordable areas. Even its best town, Leominster, ranks #987 of 2,515. At £290,000 for a typical home and £49,200 of household income, prices run 5.9 times income, the 14th highest ratio of 98 areas. It trails all of its neighbours on affordability.
The middle home sold for £290,000 over the past year, 23rd highest of the areas.
Private rent £821 a month (28th lowest); Band D council tax £2,574 (11th highest). 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. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Health
38th of 98B62/100 A little healthier than average. 13% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, almost none in a bottom-quarter one; Ledbury ranks highest. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 67.1 years (men and women averaged), 1.9 years more than the England and Wales figure.
Total life expectancy is 81.7 years (16th longest).
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. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Jobs & income
67th of 98C32/100 Better off county-wide than in its towns. Its claimant rate, 2.6%, ranks 22nd lowest, while household income ranks 45th highest. The average household income is £49,200 a year, 11% below the England and Wales figure. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Hereford, #1,316.
Claimant rate: 2.6% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 22nd lowest. 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. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Getting about
58th of 98C+41/100 A little more car-bound than average. One town stands apart: Hereford, #185 in the UK, while nearly every other town sits lower. About 2 in 10 commuters leave the car at home here (49th highest). No neighbour beats it on walkability; Gloucestershire comes closest.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 26% 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. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Flood risk
78th of 87D10/100 More flood risk than most areas. The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales put 1,603 homes in its towns at high or medium flood risk, 2.7% of them. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Hereford and Leominster sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. Every neighbour scores higher, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire among them.
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. 5 Herefordshire towns.
Growth
66th of 98C34/100 Growing a little slower than average. The population grew 4.0% between 2011 and 2024, to 191,047, against 10.0% across England and Wales (32nd slowest).
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +1.9% (38th slowest).
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Herefordshire has four graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Herefordshire compares to its neighbours
Herefordshire beats every neighbour on getting about; on cost of living and flood risk, every neighbour beats it.
| Herefordshire | Worcestershire | Shropshire | Gloucestershire | Powys | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C− 2251st of 65 | C+ 3841st of 65 | C+ 4238th of 65 | B+ 6722nd of 65 | D 661st of 65 |
| Safety | B 5813th official · 20% in top towns | B+ 6727th official · 39% in top towns | B 5628th official · 26% in top towns | B 5926th official · 28% in top towns | D 1436th official · 0% in top towns |
| Schools | C 3410th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1834th official · 2% in top towns | C− 2425th official · 4% in top towns | B 5520th official · 5% in top towns | Not graded |
| Cost of living | D 985th official · 0% in top towns | C 2775th official · 25% in top towns | C+ 4463rd official · 59% in top towns | C− 2081st official · 7% in top towns | C 3484th official · 55% in top towns |
| Health | B 6215th official · 13% in top towns | B+ 7417th official · 28% in top towns | B 5825th official · 18% in top towns | A 908th official · 50% in top towns | B 6020th official · 14% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C 3245th official · 0% in top towns | B− 4528th official · 6% in top towns | C 3441st official · 3% in top towns | A 9218th official · 37% in top towns | D 1389th official · 0% in top towns |
| Getting about | C+ 4149th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1679th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1878th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 3654th official · 0% in top towns | C− 2076th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | D 1047th official · 13% in top towns | C 2625th official · 3% in top towns | B+ 7212th official · 22% in top towns | C 3330th official · 16% in top towns | C− 1943rd official · 14% in top towns |
| Growth | C 3467th official | B 6432nd official · 17% in top towns | A 8719th official · 54% in top towns | A− 7712th official · 20% in top towns | D 1183rd official · 0% in top towns |
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.