Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0How Lisburn and Castlereagh stacks up
People in Lisburn and Castlereagh can expect long, healthy lives: healthy life expectancy at birth is 68.2 years, the longest of any Northern Ireland council area. Next to Belfast, Antrim and Newtownabbey, Ards and North Down, Newry, Mourne and Down and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, it has the best safety and health and the weakest cost of living. That leaves it 4th of 65 graded areas, with an A+ (95 of 100).
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
3rd of 65A+97/100 Safe nearly everywhere. No area puts more of its town residents in the safest quarter of towns (100%). Violent crime runs at 16.1 offences per 1,000 residents a year, the 3rd lowest rate of 65 areas with police.uk figures. It leads its neighbours on safety, ahead of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 35 per 1,000 a year (4th lowest).
Source: police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), September 2025 to August 2026; Census 2021 residents.
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. 5 Lisburn and Castlereagh towns.
Low crime nearly everywhere
Its safest towns are Hillsborough and Culcavy (#11), Moira (#32) and Carryduff (#53), ranked against every graded town in the UK.
| 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% | |
| Surrey | 71% | 2% |
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 area-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
45th of 90B−51/100 Middle of the table for schools. 72% of pupils get five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, against 75% across Northern Ireland (6th highest of 11 Northern Ireland council areas). 6% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 4% in a bottom-quarter one; Carryduff ranks highest.
Source: Department of Education school performance: pupils with five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, every post-primary school in the district. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts.
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. 5 Lisburn and Castlereagh towns.
Cost of living
27th of 98B+73/100 Affordable, town after town. No area puts more of its town residents in the most affordable quarter of towns (100%). A typical home sold for £238,800 over the past year, 4.4 times the average household’s income (38th lowest of 98 areas). It trails all of its neighbours on affordability.
The middle home sold for £238,800 over the past year, 42nd highest of the areas.
Average domestic rates bill £1,303 (Northern Ireland has rates, not council tax). Shown for context.
Source: NISRA and Land & Property Services median house prices, brought up to date with each district’s house price index; household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); domestic rates. Prices: NISRA/LPS median of all verified residential sales in 2024, brought to 2025Q3..2026Q2 prices with the LGD's LPS house price index; 5-year change = LPS index 2025Q3..2026Q2 vs 2020Q3..2021Q2.
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. 5 Lisburn and Castlereagh towns.
Health
28th of 98B+72/100 Healthier than most areas. The area-wide figure flatters its towns; villages and the countryside lift it. Lisburn and Castlereagh leads every Northern Ireland council area on this measure: healthy life expectancy at birth is 68.2 years. Among its neighbours it does best on health, with Newry, Mourne and Down second.
Total life expectancy is 82.2 years (the longest).
Source: ONS healthy life expectancy by district, 2022 to 2024 (a survey-based figure, converted to the scale of the England and Wales small-area figures), and NISRA life expectancy; men and women averaged. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts only.
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. 5 Lisburn and Castlereagh towns.
Jobs & income
8th of 98A93/100 High incomes, few out of work. Its claimant rate, 2.0%, ranks 6th lowest, while household income ranks 26th highest. Lisburn and Castlereagh ranks 26th highest for household income, at £53,900 a year before tax. It leads its neighbours on incomes, ahead of Newry, Mourne and Down.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 2.0% of working-age adults (6th lowest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size (Northern Ireland has no small-area income figures); claimant count (August 2026) by district.
Lisburn and Castlereagh has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
87th of 98D11/100 More car-dependent than most areas. 13% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 14% across Northern Ireland (11th lowest of 98 areas). Even its best town, Metropolitan Castlereagh, ranks #990 of 2,515.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 23% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work by district; 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. 5 Lisburn and Castlereagh towns.
Flood risk
Not gradedNot graded: no flood-risk data for Northern Ireland yet. We have not yet loaded flood-risk maps for Northern Ireland, so its council areas, like its towns, have no flood-risk grade. Their overall grade weighs the other subjects.
Growth
13th of 98A88/100 Healthy growth. NISRA estimates put 151,669 people here in 2024, +12.1% on 2011 (15th fastest). No neighbour beats it on growth; Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon comes closest.
Since the 2021 Census: +1.6%, 35th slowest.
Source: NISRA mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Lisburn and Castlereagh has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Lisburn and Castlereagh compares to its neighbours
Against Belfast, Antrim and Newtownabbey, Ards and North Down, Newry, Mourne and Down and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Lisburn and Castlereagh leads on safety, health and jobs and income but trails on cost of living.
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | Belfast | Antrim and Newtownabbey | Ards and North Down | Newry, Mourne and Down | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | A+ 954th of 65 | B− 4834th of 65 | B 6325th of 65 | B+ 7219th of 65 | A 926th of 65 |
| Safety | A+ 973rd official · 100% in top towns | D 1355th official | A 9110th official · 78% in top towns | A 928th official · 100% in top towns | A− 846th official · 41% in top towns |
| Schools | B− 516th official · 6% in top towns | A 912nd official | D 1011th official · 5% in top towns | B 605th official · 10% in top towns | A− 824th official · 49% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B+ 7338th official · 100% in top towns | A− 8416th official | A 8520th official · 100% in top towns | A− 7636th official · 100% in top towns | A 9015th official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | B+ 721st official · 13% in top towns | D− 410th official | C+ 404th official · 0% in top towns | C 276th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 443rd official · 0% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | A 9326th official | C− 1860th official | A− 8140th official | B+ 6747th official | A 8621st official |
| Getting about | D 1188th official · 0% in top towns | A 928th official | D 891st official · 0% in top towns | D 990th official · 0% in top towns | D 694th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Growth | A 8815th official | B− 4958th official | B 5749th official | B− 4759th official | B 5553rd official |
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.