A well-rated place to live, with prices to match. Its strongest subject is schools (A+): primary results beat 96% of towns in England; secondary results beat 93% of towns in England. Households here earn well: mean household income £79,576; 2.7% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Buying in is costly: a typical home costs £595,000 and rent runs £1,931 a month. Overall, that makes an A, better than 87% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #15 of 50 in Hertfordshire.
Figures: income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far St Albans is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in St Albans.
SchoolsA+
St Albans’s schools outperform 97% of towns in England on results
Skyswood Primary & Nursery School’s results beat 98% of schools in England like it. At the town’s 22 primary schools, three quarters of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Three of its 39 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Some 18,571 pupils attend St Albans’s 25 primaries and nine secondaries.
Department for Education · GIAS, Key Stage 2 and GCSE resultsSee all 39 schools →
Work & commuteJobs & income grade A
St Albans is more walkable than 96% of UK towns
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 55% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Nearly two thirds of commuters drove, below Hertfordshire’s towns (73%) and England’s towns (70%) alike. Home was the main workplace for 55% of workers at the census. Jobs per working resident: 1.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Health
Is St Albans a healthy place? 88% of its people say their health is good, above Hertfordshire’s towns and England’s towns
6 GP practices serve the town; 83% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 3% of the town. 13% of residents have a disability, below Hertfordshire’s towns (14%) and England’s towns (17%) alike. The nearest A&E to St Albans is Watford General Hospital, 8.1 miles away.
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
History
St Albans has 301 listed buildings, 5 of them Grade I
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Of St Albans’ land, 19% lies in conservation areas, higher than both Hertfordshire’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (7%). The town’s listed buildings include the Abbey Church of St Alban, Grade I. Homes from before 1919 make up 17% of the total.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
HousingCost of living grade C
St Albans’s grade for cost of living grade: a C
14% live in social housing, below Hertfordshire’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. From September 2023 to August 2026, 3,032 homes sold inside St Albans’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £595,000. Households that own their home make up 66%.
£595Kmedian sale
Median sale price · Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
St Albans£595K
Typical UK town£277K
By type
Median
Sales
Detached
£972,500
430
Semi-detached
£790,000
714
Terraced
£605,000
983
Flat or maisonette
£345,000
905
66%
of households own their home · England 61%
19%
rent privately · England 21%
£1,931
average private rent a month, St Albans council area
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Safety
St Albans records more burglary and damage per resident than Hertfordshire’s towns or England’s towns, at 15.2 per 1,000 a year
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence came to 25.3 per 1,000 residents a year, above both Hertfordshire’s towns (21.1) and England’s towns (22). 5,221 crimes and 1,324 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what police recorded inside St Albans’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026. Among the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, St Albans has less crime per resident than 92% of them.
25.3violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a yearCSafety Grade
Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 92% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: less crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
More crimeLess crime
Reports by type · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Violence & sexual1,864
Shoplifting781
Other theft563
Vehicle crime487
Damage & arson429
Public order283
Burglary240
Drugs232
Anti-social1,324
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.
25.3
violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
15.2
burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
17.7
anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 (not graded)
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL
Who lives here
Degrees are more common in St Albans than in Hertfordshire’s towns or across England’s towns: 57% of adults
The 65-and-over age group makes up 15% of residents. Children under 15 make up 20%, higher than both Hertfordshire’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (18%). Young adults of 15 to 24 are 9.6% of the population. Half of St Albans is older than 39.7, half younger.
39.7median age
St AlbansHertfordshireEngland
Ages · share of residents
15%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications10%
Apprenticeship3%
A levels or similar12%
Degree level57%
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
WomenEnglandMen
About 96 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
Adam Lallana: PANNATHORN SUKMANONT, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough: Charles Jervas, Public domain · Mike Newell: BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Michael Morpurgo: Georges Seguin (Okki), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Esmé Bianco: Florida Supercon, CC BY 2.0 · Ian Watson: Markku Lappalainen, CC BY 4.0
Sandridge, Park Street and Frogmore and Colney Heath have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Questions about St Albans
Are schools in St Albans good?
Among the strongest in England: GCSE results beat 93% of towns in England, and primary results beat 96% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Is St Albans expensive to live in?
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £595,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £345,000, terraced houses £605,000, semi-detached houses £790,000 and detached houses £972,500.
Is St Albans safe?
Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades C. Police recorded 5,221 crimes inside St Albans’ built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, 36% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
About St Albans
Large town in Hertfordshire, England
St Albans is a built-up area of 75,544 people, in the St Albans 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
Population
75,544 (Census 2021)
Council
St Albans
County
Hertfordshire
Region
East of England
Area
6.7 sq mi (17.5 km²)
ONS code
E63004441
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) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), 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.
