Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
This town in Lancashire, North West has a population of 8,777. Walking, cycling and public transport carry 12% of commuters.
Prices are modest for what you get: a typical home costs £217,750 and rent runs £798 a month. The overall grade lands at A−, #4 of 65 in Lancashire. That leaves it better than just over four fifths of UK towns. The rest of its grades are middling: B− for safety, B for schools, C+ for health, B for jobs & income and C+ for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021.
The 3 things Adlington does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Adlington is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 10 buildings inside Adlington’s built-up area.
29% 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 Adlington.
15% of households are private tenants. Social housing holds 9% of households, lower than both Lancashire’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (18%). Behind the median of £217,750: 342 standard sales inside Adlington’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £352,750 | 98 |
| Semi-detached | £221,250 | 106 |
| Terraced | £174,000 | 135 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Below is one of its 4 schools, and why it was picked. Some 644 pupils attend Adlington’s four primaries. Attainment 8 at the 4 secondary schools within 3 km averages 46.8, and 45% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anderton Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 185 | B− |
Children under 15 make up 16%, below Lancashire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. Retirement age and beyond: nearly a quarter of residents are 65 or older. Typical age in Adlington: 46.6, the median.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Adlington | Lancashire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.9% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 29% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 16% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.6% | 6.3% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 33% | 29% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Lancashire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 29% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
There are 0.5 jobs in Adlington for each resident in work. The car took 86% of commuters, higher than both Lancashire’s towns (78%) and England’s towns (70%). One in ten commuters who live in Adlington also work there.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
2 GP practices serve the town; four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 18% of people here had a disability, about level with England’s towns (17%) and below Lancashire’s towns (20%). Also worth knowing: men in Adlington can expect to live to 78.9, women to 83.7 (2019–23).
| Census 2021 | Adlington | Lancashire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 80% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.7% | 6.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 18% | 20% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Its heritage register entries (10 listed buildings) are all Grade II. Relative to its size, Adlington keeps 11 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, lower than both Lancashire’s towns (16) and England’s towns (39).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Violence and sexual offences made up 58% of the total. In the 12 months to August 2026, police logged 382 crimes and 139 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Adlington’s built-up area. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 16.2 reports per 1,000, below Lancashire’s towns (17.3) but above England’s towns (7.8).
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.
10 listed buildings in Adlington.
Adlington and District War Memorial: Photo: Plucas58 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Old School House: Photo: Raymond Knapman · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · 72, 74 and 76, Market Street: Photo: Plucas58 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Church of St Paul: Photo: Christine Crompton · CC BY-SA 2.0
8 notable people were born in Adlington.
Lindsay Hoyle: ©House of Commons / photography by Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0 · Samuel Oldknow: Joseph Wright of Derby, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adlington | 8,777 | — | A− | A | B− | C+ |
| Blackrod | 5,340 | 1.9 | — | D | — | C |
| Coppull | 8,303 | 2.5 | B− | A | B− | C− |
| Chorley | 39,539 | 2.7 | B− | A | D | D |
| Horwich | 20,703 | 2.8 | — | D | — | C− |
| Charnock Richard | 1,098 | 3 | — | B+ | D | B |
| Standish | 12,937 | 3.1 | — | B− | — | B− |
| Aspull | 4,937 | 3.3 | — | B+ | — | C |
Charnock Richard has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Blackrod, Horwich, Standish and Aspull have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £217,750, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: terraced houses £174,000, semi-detached houses £221,250 and detached houses £352,750.
Town in Lancashire, England
Adlington is a built-up area of 8,777 people, in the Chorley 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) · 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.
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.