Photo: Stephen Craven · CC BY-SA 2.0How Lancashire stacks up
In Lancashire, no subject stands out: its best grade is a B. It struggles most with 2.3% of town homes at flood risk and more crime than most areas (violent crime 15% above the England and Wales figure). The overall grade: C, a score of 27 that ranks 48th.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
54th of 65C−17/100 Higher crime than most areas. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Bolton-le-Sands ranks highest, at #80. Lancashire records 43.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 people a year, against 37.9 across England and Wales.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 85 per 1,000 a year (14th highest).
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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Quiet towns, busier ones
Its safest towns are Longton (#120), Caton (#158) and Tarleton and Hesketh Bank (#159), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Blackpool, Preston and Burnley, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime. The county-wide rate ranks 8th highest, but town by town it places 40th 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% | |
| Lancashire | 24% | 36% |
Where crimes are counted
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 Lancashire, 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
48th of 90B−47/100 Average schools. Lancashire’s eleven-year-olds rank 15th lowest in the national tests: 61% reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. Croston leads its towns at #42 of 2,331; 12% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 45.2, 16th lowest. 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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Cost of living
47th of 98B−53/100 Middle of the road on cost. Over five years, typical prices have risen 12%. A typical home sold for £190,000 over the past year, 4.3 times the average household’s income (35th lowest of 98 areas). Town by town it lands near the middle, with Chorley its best at #254 of 2,515.
The middle home sold for £190,000 over the past year, 28th lowest of the areas.
Private rent £760 a month (21st lowest); Band D council tax £2,494 (19th 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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Health
66th of 98C33/100 Slightly worse health than average. 53% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Blackpool and Blackburn. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 63.4 years (men and women averaged), 1.8 years fewer than the England and Wales figure.
Total life expectancy is 79.3 years (9th shortest).
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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Jobs & income
74th of 98C25/100 Lower incomes than most areas. At £43,900 a year, household incomes here are the 21st lowest of 98 areas. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Blackpool and Blackburn sit in the bottom quarter for the UK.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 4.1% of working-age adults (11th highest), weighed with income 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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Getting about
39th of 98B61/100 Slightly easier on foot than average. 18% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 26% across England and Wales (42nd lowest of 98 areas). Every neighbour scores higher, Cumbria, Merseyside and Greater Manchester among them. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Lancaster its best at #77 of 2,515.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 24% 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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Flood risk
74th of 87C−15/100 More flood risk than most areas. Longridge leads its towns at #93 of 2,452; 11% of town residents live in top-quarter towns. The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales put 13,886 homes in its towns at high or medium flood risk, 2.3% of 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. 65 Lancashire towns.
Growth
38th of 98B62/100 Growing a bit faster than average. The population grew 9.6% between 2011 and 2024, to 1.60 million, against 10.0% across England and Wales (34th fastest). Town by town it lands near the middle, with Euxton its best at #57 of 1,579.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +4.5% (13th fastest).
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 48 Lancashire towns. Covers 93% of residents of Lancashire’s graded towns.
How Lancashire compares to its neighbours
Against Cumbria, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, Lancashire trails on getting about.
| Lancashire | Cumbria | Merseyside | Greater Manchester | North Yorkshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C 2748th of 65 | D 1158th of 65 | D 959th of 65 | No overall grade | A− 7517th of 65 |
| Safety | C− 1758th official · 24% in top towns | C− 1946th official · 15% in top towns | D 1159th official · 17% in top towns | Not graded | B− 5343rd official · 34% in top towns |
| Schools | B− 4733rd official · 12% in top towns | D− 345th official · 0% in top towns | D 1242nd official · 2% in top towns | B+ 6715th official · 14% in top towns | B+ 6919th official · 17% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B− 5335th official · 36% in top towns | C 3246th official · 0% in top towns | C 2553rd official · 0% in top towns | C− 2373rd official · 6% in top towns | B− 4556th official · 52% in top towns |
| Health | C 3344th official · 13% in top towns | B 6130th official · 23% in top towns | D 1453rd official · 9% in top towns | C− 2447th official · 10% in top towns | B+ 7322nd official · 34% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C 2578th official · 9% in top towns | C− 2086th official · 0% in top towns | D 1481st official · 8% in top towns | C+ 3864th official · 12% in top towns | A− 8043rd official · 37% in top towns |
| Getting about | B 6157th official · 4% in top towns | B+ 7233rd official · 8% in top towns | A 9013th official · 36% in top towns | A− 8218th official · 21% in top towns | A− 7733rd official · 24% in top towns |
| Flood risk | C− 1541st official · 11% in top towns | D− 349th official · 3% in top towns | A 883rd official · 43% in top towns | A− 7617th official · 31% in top towns | C 2746th official · 21% in top towns |
| Growth | B 6234th official · 17% in top towns | C 2978th official · 6% in top towns | C+ 3547th official · 2% in top towns | A− 8415th official · 33% in top towns | B− 5151st official · 9% 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.