Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
51,447 people live in this large town in Lisburn and Castlereagh, Northern Ireland. The average domestic rates bill is £1,303 a year.
What it saves you on housing, it gives back elsewhere. At A− overall, Lisburn is better than 77% of UK towns and ranks #27 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Cost of living is its strong suit: homes sell for a median £194,600, about 3.6 times local household income. Residents’ health trails most towns (C−): life expectancy is 79.2 for men and 82.9 for women. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: B− for safety, B for schools and B for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · life expectancy, ONS · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · commuting, Census 2021.
This town's Cost Grade uses house prices and the domestic rates bill: Northern Ireland has no council tax, and no rents are published for its council areas. This town's Health Grade uses NISRA's life expectancy for its district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. Healthy life expectancy and the early-death and hospital measures English towns use aren't published for small areas in Northern Ireland. This town's School Grade uses GCSE results at the post-primary schools its children travel to, grammar and non-grammar, compared with schools across Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland publishes no primary school results. Northern Ireland has no Jobs Grade (no small-area income, claimant or job-access data is published) and no Hazards Grade (its flood maps aren't open data).
The 3 things Lisburn does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Lisburn is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 102 buildings inside Lisburn’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 9 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 4 old photos and postcards going back to 1782.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Lisburn.
No town in Lisburn and Castlereagh costs less to buy into than Lisburn, at £194,600, the lowest of 5. The owner-occupied share of households is 66%. Private renters make up 13% of households, above Lisburn and Castlereagh’s towns (12%) but below Northern Ireland’s towns (19%).
NISRA / Land & Property Services ward sale prices and domestic rates · NISRA Census 2021 tenure · OGL · The figure is NISRA’s median sale price for the wards around Lisburn, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Lisburn’s 16 primaries and six secondaries have 10,284 pupils between them. Three of its 26 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harmony Hill Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 681 | – |
| Wallace High SchoolLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,189 | C+ |
| Friends' SchoolTop results in townPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,093 | A− |
Lisburn’s share in bad or very bad health, 7.1%, is the second highest of the 5 towns in Lisburn and Castlereagh. At the census, nearly a quarter of people here had a disability, close to Lisburn and Castlereagh’s towns (23%) and below Northern Ireland’s towns (26%).
| Census 2021 | Lisburn | Lisburn and Castlereagh | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 80% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.1% | 6.9% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 23% | 23% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy among them.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Lisburn’s listed buildings include the Cathedral of Christ Church, Grade A. Grade B+ covers 5 of them, Grade A 1. 9 scheduled monuments lie locally.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 19% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
83% of commuters drove, near Lisburn and Castlereagh’s towns (82%) and higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (79%). There are 1.1 jobs in Lisburn for each resident in work. The census counted 19% of workers working mainly from home.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Half the people of Lisburn are older than 38.8. Young adults of 15 to 24 are 10% of residents, higher than Lisburn and Castlereagh’s towns (9.7%) yet lower than Northern Ireland’s towns (12%). Just over a third of adults hold a degree.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Lisburn | Lisburn and Castlereagh | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 19% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 9.7% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 29% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 17% | 18% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 21% | 19% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 15% | 16% |
| Degree level | 34% | 38% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Lisburn and Castlereagh and Northern Ireland: all residents of their settlements · Women and men: whole data zones, which approximate the town’s boundary · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 2,693 crimes inside Lisburn’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 1,463 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violence comes to 22.9 per 1,000 residents a year. In addition, homes saw 9.6 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, above both Lisburn and Castlereagh’s towns (4.8) and Northern Ireland’s towns (8.8).
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 NISRA settlement boundary · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Lisburn. Best known first.
CathedralChrist Church Cathedral, Lisburnin town
MuseumLinen Centre and Museumin town
PalaceHillsborough Castle3.2 km outside town, to the southAttractionAttractionHilden Brewing Companyin townWater parkWater parkLagan Valley LeisurePlexin townMuseumMuseumUlster Aviation Society1.2 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
102 listed buildings in Lisburn, 1 of them Grade I.
Cathedral of Christ Church: Photo: JohnArmagh · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wallace Park: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Lisburn Railway Station: Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Fountain, Castle Gardens: Photo: Glenn Quigley · CC BY-SA 3.0
93 notable people were born in Lisburn.
Ray Stevenson: Mingle Media TV, CC BY-SA 2.0 · David Crystal: Eino81, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lucinda Riley: Unnamed photographer for Cappelen Damm publishers, Oslo, CC BY 4.0 · Kristian Nairn: GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Damien Johnson: Struway, Public domain · Philip Doyle: Iora Rua, CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisburn | 51,447 | — | A− | A+ | B− | C− |
| Metropolitan Lisburn | 32,643 | 3 | A− | A+ | C+ | D− |
| Hillsborough and Culcavy | 3,754 | 3.6 | A+ | A | A+ | B− |
| Carryduff | 7,173 | 6.8 | A+ | A+ | A | B |
| Belfast | 293,298 | 7.2 | B | A+ | D | D− |
| Moira | 4,891 | 7.4 | A− | A+ | A | B− |
| Dromore | 6,395 | 8.2 | A | A+ | B+ | C+ |
| Metropolitan Castlereagh | 58,763 | 8.9 | A+ | A+ | A− | C |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 2,693 crimes inside Lisburn’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026, 44% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £194,600, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 40th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Northern Ireland has no council tax: homes pay domestic rates, set on the home’s capital value, and the rates also pay for water. The average bill in Lisburn and Castlereagh is about £1,303 a year for 2026–27, against England’s average council tax per home of £1,868. Your own bill depends on your home’s value; check it with Land & Property Services on nidirect.
Large town in Lisburn and Castlereagh, Northern Ireland
Lisburn is a settlement of 51,447 people, in the Lisburn and Castlereagh council area. TownRatings uses NISRA’s settlements (the 2015 Settlement Development Limits) as Northern Ireland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from NISRA geography and Census 2021
Sources: NISRA Census 2021, data zones best-fitted to the NISRA Settlement Development Limits 2015 (settlement totals from NISRA where it publishes them) · NISRA / Land & Property Services verified residential sales by ward, 2005 to 2024, new and existing dwellings (medians; the 2022 to 2024 headline brought to early-2025 prices with the LPS house price index, which runs to 2026) · Land & Property Services domestic rates paid by council, 2025-26, and Department of Finance rate poundages 2026-27 · data.police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), 36 months to August 2026, points inside the settlement boundary · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area (2022 to 2024) and NISRA Census 2021 general health and disability, adjusted for age · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils · Department of Education examination performance at post-primary schools 2024/25 and school-level enrolment data 2025/26 · 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.