Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 16,626 in Lancashire, North West.
Clitheroe grades A− overall against UK towns: better than 79% of UK towns, and #8 of 65 in Lancashire. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A): median sale £238,000, 4.6 years of area income; rent £818 a month. Its weakest is hazard risk (D): 5.3% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
The 3 things Clitheroe 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 Clitheroe is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 114 buildings inside Clitheroe’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
32% 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 1892.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Clitheroe.
Owners make up 69% of households, above both Lancashire’s towns (65%) and England’s towns (61%). Social housing holds 13% of households. 911 standard sales inside Clitheroe’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £238,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £374,995 | 238 |
| Semi-detached | £261,000 | 281 |
| Terraced | £175,000 | 330 |
| Flat or maisonette | £135,500 | 62 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Some 3,976 pupils attend Clitheroe’s five primaries and two secondaries. Clitheroe Royal Grammar School’s results beat 97% of schools in England like it. Three of its 8 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Key Stage 2 results at the town’s 5 primary schools: 63% of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clitheroe Pendle Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 349 | A− |
| Clitheroe Royal Grammar SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,496 | A+ |
| Edisford Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 212 | A |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Clitheroe has 69 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents. Its listed buildings include Clitheroe Castle, Grade I. It has 114 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 1 Grade I, 1 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 23% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
21% of commuters went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport at the census. Household income came to £45K a year before tax, about level with Lancashire’s towns (£48K) and below England’s towns (£55K). The car carried 77% of commuters at the census. Of the commuters living in Clitheroe, 37% work in the town itself.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
2 GP practices serve the town; 87% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 17% of residents have a disability, below Lancashire’s towns (20%) and close to England’s towns (17%). Self-reported good health: 83% of Clitheroe’s residents. The nearest A&E to Clitheroe is Royal Blackburn Hospital, 9.8 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Clitheroe | Lancashire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 80% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.4% | 6.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 17% | 20% | 17% |
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.
Violence and sexual offences accounted for 49% of recorded crime. Police recorded 817 crimes inside Clitheroe’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 280 reports of anti-social behaviour. Also worth knowing: there were 21.5 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Lancashire’s towns (17.2) and England’s towns (7.8) alike. For its size, Clitheroe records less crime per resident than three quarters of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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.
Half the people of Clitheroe are older than 44. People aged 15 to 24 make up a tenth of the town. What’s more, 17% are under 15, below Lancashire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. The 65-and-over age group makes up 22% of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Clitheroe | Lancashire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.7% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 22% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7% | 6.3% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 37% | 29% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Lancashire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Clitheroe. Best known first.
MuseumClitheroe Castle Museumin town
Abbey or priory · English HeritageWhalley Abbey4.5 km outside town, to the south
Abbey or priory · English HeritageSawley Abbey3.5 km outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
114 listed buildings in Clitheroe, 1 of them Grade I.
Clitheroe Castle: Photo: Lux01 · Public domain · Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene: Photo: Alexander P Kapp · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Holmes Mill, Clitheroe: Photo: Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent · CC BY-SA 3.0 · White Lion Hotel: Photo: Phil and Juliette Platt · CC BY-SA 2.0
31 notable people were born in Clitheroe.
Jim Furnell: Ron Kroon for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · James King: John Webber, Public domain · Benjamin Dean: Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clitheroe | 16,626 | — | A− | A | B− | C+ |
| Waddington | 1,005 | 1.4 | — | B− | A+ | A |
| Barrow | 1,388 | 2.2 | — | B | C | A |
| Chatburn | 1,125 | 2.3 | — | A | B+ | A− |
| Whalley | 3,411 | 3.3 | B | B− | C− | A− |
| Sabden | 1,582 | 3.5 | — | A | B− | A− |
| Billington | 1,743 | 4 | — | A | A | A− |
| Old Langho | 1,072 | 4.1 | — | B− | A+ | A− |
Waddington, Barrow, Chatburn, Sabden, Billington and Old Langho have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 2.8 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Clitheroe Castle. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Secondary schools stand out: GCSE results beat 87% of towns in England. Primary results are closer to the middle, beating 60%.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades B−.
Town in Lancashire, England
Clitheroe is a built-up area of 16,626 people, in the Ribble Valley 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.