Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The town has 14,873 residents and lies in Leicestershire, East Midlands.
Good value, with catches elsewhere. Prices are modest for what you get: a typical home costs £234,250 and rent runs £960 a month. School results are strong: primary results beat just over three quarters of towns in England; secondary results beat 78% of towns in England. Crime runs high: 32.1 violent and sexual offences and 15.5 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Only 43% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people have more crime per resident. Put together, the subjects come to a B+ overall, ranking #23 of 50 in Leicestershire. It comes out better than 70% of UK towns. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: B− for jobs & income, B for walkability and B for hazard risk.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 2 things Shepshed 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 Shepshed is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 26 buildings inside Shepshed’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
12% 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 Shepshed.
Social renters account for 11% of households. 16% rent privately, below Leicestershire’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (21%) alike. The £234,250 median rests on 748 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £335,000 | 260 |
| Semi-detached | £225,000 | 291 |
| Terraced | £177,000 | 167 |
| Flat or maisonette | £101,000 | 30 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Secondary results at the 3 secondary schools within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 51, with 53% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Below are two of its 7 schools, each with why it was picked. Nearly two thirds of pupils at the town’s 4 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcroft Primary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 442 | A |
| Iveshead SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 985 | C+ |
Of all the crimes, 45% were violence and sexual offences. Police figures for Shepshed’s built-up area: 1,008 crimes and 197 anti-social behaviour reports in the 12 months to August 2026. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 11.1 reports per 1,000, above Leicestershire’s towns (6.7) and England’s towns (7.8) alike.
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.
Children under 15 make up 16%, below Leicestershire’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. Just over a fifth of residents are 65 or over. Typical age in Shepshed: 43.2, the median. Among adults, 27% have a degree.
51% women, 49% men
About 96 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Shepshed | Leicestershire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.8% | 14% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 22% | 17% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 18% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.2% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 27% | 30% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Leicestershire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
A disability affects nearly a fifth of people in Shepshed. 2 GP practices serve the town; 87% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Shepshed is Leicester Royal Infirmary, 11.9 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Shepshed | Leicestershire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.5% | 4.7% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 16% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Homes from before 1919 make up just over a tenth of the total, below both Leicestershire’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (16%). Shepshed’s listed buildings include the Church of St Botolph, Grade I. It has 17 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 26% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Households had £51K a year before tax, below Leicestershire’s towns (£57K) and England’s towns (£55K) alike. 82% of commuters took the car to work at the census. About just over a fifth of its commuters stay in Shepshed for work. For just over a third of commuters, work was under 5 km away.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Shepshed. Best known first.
Abbey or prioryMount St Bernard Abbey1.8 km outside town, to the southwest
MuseumLoughborough Carillon4.4 km outside town, to the east
MuseumCharnwood Museum4.5 km outside town, to the eastMuseumMuseumDiseworth Heritage Centre4.5 km outside town, to the northwestMuseumMuseumThe Old Rectory Museum4.8 km outside town, to the eastGardenGardenWhatton House Gardens3.6 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
26 listed buildings in Shepshed, 1 of them Grade I.
Bethseda Chapel: Photo: Hassocks5489 · CC0 · The Pied Bull: Photo: Jonathan Clitheroe · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shepshed | 14,873 | — | B+ | A | C− | C |
| Hathern | 2,351 | 2.4 | — | A− | B+ | B+ |
| Long Whatton | 1,157 | 2.6 | — | B | A | A− |
| Loughborough | 64,850 | 3.2 | B | A | D | C |
| Whitwick | 10,455 | 3.3 | C+ | A | C+ | C |
| Sutton Bonington | 2,064 | 4.1 | — | A− | A | B |
| Coalville | 21,975 | 4.1 | C− | A | D | C− |
| Woodhouse Eaves | 1,618 | 4.4 | — | B− | B | A |
Hathern, Long Whatton, Sutton Bonington and Woodhouse Eaves have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
GCSE results beat 78% of towns in England, and primary results beat 76% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
About the middle for its size: 57% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C−.
Town in Leicestershire, England
Shepshed is a built-up area of 14,873 people, in the Charnwood 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.
