Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A borough of 340,611 people, one of London’s 32 boroughs.
Brent’s weakest subject is cost of living (D): a typical home costs £551,464 and rent runs £2,017 a month. It is easy to get around without a car (A+): 62% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Schools are another plus — primary results beat 79% of towns in England; secondary results beat 80% of towns in England. Put together, the subjects come to a C+ overall, better than 40% of UK towns. The ranking puts it #31 of 33 in London.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Brent 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 Brent is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 98 buildings inside Brent’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
28% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Brent. Best known first.
Art galleryBen Uriin town
Big drawMuseumBritish Museum4.5 km outside town, to the east · 5.8M visitors a year (2023)
Historic houseBuckingham Palace4.8 km outside town, to the southeast
Big drawArt galleryNational Gallery5 km outside town, to the southeast · 709K visitors a year (2021)
MuseumMadame Tussauds2.6 km outside town, to the southeast
Big drawMuseumVictoria and Albert Museum3.8 km outside town, to the southeast · 858K visitors a year (2021)Photos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Brent.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 30% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Just over a third of commuters drove, below London’s towns (38%) and England’s towns (70%) alike. Brent counts 0.8 jobs per working resident. Of the commuters living in the town, 30% work in the town itself. Before tax, the average household brings in £64K a year.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Between them, 60 primaries and 17 secondaries teach 46,969 pupils in Brent. Below are three of its 90 schools, each with why it was picked. Secondary results at the town’s 17 secondary schools: an Attainment 8 score of 51.2, with 54% at grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sudbury Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 920 | A− |
| JFSLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 2,091 | A+ |
| Ark Franklin Primary AcademyTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 663 | A+ |
24% live in social housing, about level with London’s towns (23%) and above England’s towns (18%). Owners make up 38% of households. Also worth knowing: 5,098 standard sales inside Brent’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £551,464.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £950,000 | 170 |
| Semi-detached | £655,000 | 929 |
| Terraced | £690,000 | 1,166 |
| Flat or maisonette | £435,000 | 2,833 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
There were 30.2 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above London’s towns (24.1) and England’s towns (7.8) alike. Burglary and damage come to 20.8 per 1,000 residents a year. 32,462 crimes and 10,223 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what police recorded inside Brent’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026. Violent crime runs at 35.9 per 1,000 residents a year.
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
57 GP practices serve the town; 71% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Brent is Northwick Park Hospital, 3 miles away. At the census, 4.4% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, near London’s towns (4.3%) and lower than England’s towns (5.2%).
| Census 2021 | Brent | London | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 85% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.4% | 4.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 12% | 13% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as 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.
The pre-1919 share of homes is 28%. Brent’s listed buildings include the Old Parish Church of St Andrew, Grade I. It has 98 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 1 Grade I, 8 Grade II*. Only one town in London has fewer listed buildings for its size than Brent.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
People 65 and over make up 12% of the town, near London’s towns (12%) and lower than England’s towns (18%). Graduates make up 40% of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Brent | London | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 13% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 33% | 34% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 12% | 12% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 16% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 3.5% | 3.2% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 13% | 13% | 17% |
| Degree level | 40% | 47% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · London and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
98 listed buildings in Brent, 1 of them Grade I.
Sudbury Town Underground Station: Photo: Sunil060902 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Old Parish Church of St Andrew: Photo: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Prince of Wales Public House: Photo: Ewan Munro from London, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bandstand in Queen's Park: Photo: SReed993422 · CC BY-SA 4.0
242 notable people were born in Brent.
Oliver Sacks: Maria Popova, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Twiggy: KRLA Beat/Beat Publications, Inc., Public domain · Alan Parsons: Andemaya, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Riz Ahmed: Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV from Culver City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Keith Moon: Jim Summaria, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Taio Cruz: Musikshun at English Wikipedia, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brent | 340,611 | — | C+ | D | C− | C+ |
| Ealing | 367,271 | 3.7 | B− | C | C− | C+ |
| Harrow | 260,534 | 4.1 | B+ | C | C+ | B− |
| Barnet | 388,572 | 4.4 | B+ | C | C | B |
| Camden | 209,342 | 4.6 | B− | C− | D− | C+ |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 143,348 | 4.6 | B+ | C− | D | B+ |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 182,187 | 4.7 | B− | C− | D | C+ |
| Westminster | 203,571 | 4.8 | B− | C− | D− | B− |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £551,464, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £435,000, terraced houses £690,000, semi-detached houses £655,000 and detached houses £950,000.
Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades C−. Police recorded 32,462 crimes inside Brent’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, 35% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
GCSE results beat 80% of towns in England, and primary results beat 79% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
London borough in London
Brent is a built-up area of 340,611 people, in the Brent 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.