Photo: Bill Boaden · CC BY-SA 2.0How Lincolnshire stacks up
In Lincolnshire, Nettleham and Deeping St James rank near the top in the UK for health; Lincoln and Grimsby sit near the bottom. Only one area has more homes at risk of flooding than Lincolnshire: 8.3% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding. Its overall score of 36 ranks 42nd, a C+.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
39th of 65C+41/100 A bit above-average crime. Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire all do better on safety. Lincolnshire records 39.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 people a year, against 37.9 across England and Wales. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Washingborough and Heighington its best at #65 of 2,138.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 83 per 1,000 a year (16th 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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Where most people live, crime runs higher
Its safest towns are Navenby (#66), Woodhall Spa (#99) and Messingham (#121), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime. By population, 29% of its town residents are in top-quarter towns and 44% in bottom-quarter ones.
| 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% | |
| Lincolnshire | 29% | 44% |
Where crimes are counted
Each crime on police.uk is pinned to a nearby street or public place, not an address; both figures count crimes where those points fall. The county-wide rate takes in town centres, stations and shopping streets, where many offences are recorded but few people live. Our town grades leave shop theft and other town-centre crime out and count violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage, the crimes that reach people at home.
Schools
57th of 90C+37/100 Results slightly under the middle for England. At the end of primary school it ranks 17th lowest of 47 English counties, with 61% of pupils at the expected standard in all three Rs. 9% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 40% in a bottom-quarter one; Witham St Hughs ranks highest.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 44.9, 14th 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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Cost of living
42nd of 98B58/100 A little more affordable than average. Nearly every town does well here, Sleaford and Grantham among them. Land Registry sales put the typical home at £210,000, or 4.6 years of average household income, against 5.2 across England and Wales. No neighbour beats it on affordability; Cambridgeshire comes closest.
Typical sale price: £210,000 (13,119 sales, 40th lowest).
Private rent £757 a month (19th lowest); Band D council tax £2,335 (39th lowest). 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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Health
52nd of 98B−47/100 Very different towns at each end. The gap between towns is wide: 42% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places like Lincoln. Of a life expectancy of 80.4 years, 64.3 are expected in good health (19th shortest among the areas).
Total life expectancy is 80.4 years (16th 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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Jobs & income
68th of 98C31/100 Incomes a notch below average. Lincolnshire ranks 38th lowest for household income, at £45,900 a year before tax. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Grimsby and Scunthorpe sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. It trails all of its neighbours on incomes.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 3.4% of working-age adults (35th 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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Getting about
67th of 98C31/100 A little more car-bound than average. 18% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 26% across England and Wales (40th lowest of 98 areas). One town stands apart: Lincoln, #166 in the UK, while nearly every other town sits lower. It trails all of its neighbours on walkability.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 20% 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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Flood risk
61st of 87C30/100 Somewhat more flood-prone than average. Lincoln and Grimsby weigh on the town measure; 51% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places. 8.3% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, against 1.6% across England and Wales (2nd highest).
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. 61 Lincolnshire towns.
Growth
41st of 98B59/100 Growing a bit faster than average. ONS estimates put 1.12 million people here in 2024, +7.6% on 2011 (43rd fastest). Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Witham St Hughs ranks highest, at #23.
Since the 2021 Census: +2.2%, 44th slowest.
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. 42 Lincolnshire towns. Covers 90% of residents of Lincolnshire’s graded towns.
How Lincolnshire compares to its neighbours
Lincolnshire beats every neighbour on cost of living; on safety, jobs and income and getting about, every neighbour beats it.
| Lincolnshire | Nottinghamshire | Norfolk | Cambridgeshire | Leicestershire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C+ 3642nd of 65 | B 5828th of 65 | B− 4735th of 65 | A 8610th of 65 | B+ 6921st of 65 |
| Safety | C+ 4147th official · 29% in top towns | B− 4751st official · 36% in top towns | B+ 7324th official · 40% in top towns | B 6432nd official · 37% in top towns | B 6129th official · 30% in top towns |
| Schools | C+ 3731st official · 9% in top towns | B+ 7214th official · 20% in top towns | C− 2046th official · 3% in top towns | B+ 7134th official · 30% in top towns | B 5718th official · 8% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B 5843rd official · 57% in top towns | C+ 4051st official · 22% in top towns | C− 2474th official · 11% in top towns | C+ 4362nd official · 57% in top towns | C+ 3963rd official · 42% in top towns |
| Health | B− 4737th official · 22% in top towns | C+ 3944th official · 18% in top towns | B− 5432nd official · 21% in top towns | A− 8416th official · 54% in top towns | B+ 6533rd official · 35% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C 3161st official · 7% in top towns | B− 4648th official · 15% in top towns | B− 4944th official · 10% in top towns | A 889th official · 44% in top towns | B 6035th official · 25% in top towns |
| Getting about | C 3159th official · 0% in top towns | A 8524th official · 31% in top towns | B+ 6752nd official · 6% in top towns | A 8617th official · 23% in top towns | B− 5141st official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | C 3054th official · 28% in top towns | C+ 4239th official · 25% in top towns | B 6432nd official · 32% in top towns | D 753rd official · 12% in top towns | B− 5233rd official · 26% in top towns |
| Growth | B 5943rd official · 16% in top towns | B 5839th official · 13% in top towns | B 6136th official · 13% in top towns | A+ 966th official · 65% in top towns | A 938th official · 65% 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.