Photo: Mайкл Гиммельфарб (Mike Gimelfarb) · Public domainHow London stacks up
London leads every English county on schools: 72% of pupils leave primary school at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. Its overall score of 66 ranks 23rd, a B+. The good news is a growing population and high incomes (£75,100 a household); the bad news, high costs against local pay and above-average crime.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
48th of 65C27/100 Higher crime than most areas. It trails all of its neighbours on safety. London records 36.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 people a year, against 37.9 across England and Wales. Richmond upon Thames leads its towns at #966 of 2,138; 15% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 101 per 1,000 a year (5th 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. 33 London towns.
Quiet towns, busier ones
Its safest towns are Harrow (#1,063), Merton (#1,064) and Kingston upon Thames (#1,065), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Camden, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime.
| 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% | |
| London | 15% | 6% |
Where crimes are counted
police.uk places every crime at a street or public place near where it happened, never an address, and we count it where that point falls. The county figure counts violent and sexual offences everywhere in London, including town centres, stations and shopping streets. Town grades count the crimes that touch residents where they live (violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage), so a town with a busy centre is not marked down for its shoplifting.
Schools
3rd of 90A+98/100 Consistently strong schools. London leads every English county on this measure: 72% of pupils leave primary school at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. Only West Lothian and one other area put more town residents in the best-for-schools quarter of towns. Among its neighbours it does best on schools, with Surrey second.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 51.4, 2nd highest. 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. 33 London towns.
Cost of living
91st of 98D7/100 Cost is the price of living here. No area has homes that cost more against local incomes than London: a typical home costs 6.9 times the average household’s income. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Sutton its best at #537 of 2,515.
The middle home sold for £520,000 over the past year, the highest of the areas.
Private rent £2,095 a month (the highest); Band D council tax £2,120 (34th 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. 33 London towns.
Health
31st of 98B+69/100 A little healthier than average. London ranks 27th shortest for healthy life expectancy, at 65.8 years. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; City of London ranks highest, at #31.
Life expectancy at birth: 81.6 years, 17th longest.
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. 33 London towns.
Jobs & income
28th of 98B+72/100 Well off with few exceptions. Nearly every town does well here, City of London and Richmond upon Thames among them. No area has richer households than London: households take in £75,100 a year on average. Its claimant rate, 5.5%, ranks 2nd highest, while household income ranks highest.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 5.5% of working-age adults (2nd 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. 33 London towns.
Getting about
1st of 98A+100/100 Walkable, town after town. Few places anywhere beat Islington, first of 2,515 towns for walkability. London leads every area on this measure: 58% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train. No area puts more of its town residents in the most walkable quarter of towns (100%).
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 42% 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. 33 London towns.
Flood risk
36th of 87B59/100 A bit less exposed than most. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Camden ranks highest, at #337. About one in 100 homes in its towns face a real risk of flooding from rivers or the sea (19th lowest).
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. 33 London towns.
Growth
26th of 98B+74/100 Healthy growth. The population grew 10.8% between 2011 and 2024, to 9.09 million, against 10.0% across England and Wales (23rd fastest). Town by town it lands near the middle, with City of London its best at #16 of 1,579.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +3.2% (40th fastest).
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. 33 London towns.
How London compares to its neighbours
Next to Surrey, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, it comes out ahead on schools and getting about and behind on safety.
| London | Surrey | Kent | Essex | Hertfordshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B+ 6623rd of 65 | A 898th of 65 | B 6126th of 65 | A− 7716th of 65 | A 945th of 65 |
| Safety | C 2740th official · 15% in top towns | A 8812th official · 71% in top towns | B− 5033rd official · 26% in top towns | B− 4845th official · 33% in top towns | A− 7722nd official · 51% in top towns |
| Schools | A+ 981st official · 79% in top towns | A+ 972nd official · 72% in top towns | A− 7815th official · 22% in top towns | A− 806th official · 23% in top towns | A 906th official · 43% in top towns |
| Cost of living | D 798th official · 6% in top towns | D− 097th official · 0% in top towns | D 985th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1588th official · 11% in top towns | D− 196th official · 0% in top towns |
| Health | B+ 6929th official · 31% in top towns | A+ 982nd official · 98% in top towns | B+ 6725th official · 23% in top towns | A− 7817th official · 41% in top towns | A 944th official · 62% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | B+ 721st official · 43% in top towns | A+ 992nd official · 99% in top towns | B+ 6515th official · 21% in top towns | B+ 7411th official · 36% in top towns | A 944th official · 54% in top towns |
| Getting about | A+ 1001st official · 100% in top towns | A− 8123rd official · 14% in top towns | A− 7632nd official · 8% in top towns | A− 7525th official · 4% in top towns | A− 7818th official · 5% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B 5919th official · 21% in top towns | C− 1751st official · 18% in top towns | B 5536th official · 30% in top towns | A− 8011th official · 36% in top towns | A− 8312th official · 54% in top towns |
| Growth | B+ 7423rd official · 23% in top towns | B+ 6730th official · 22% in top towns | A− 8117th official · 29% in top towns | A− 8017th official · 24% in top towns | A− 7627th official · 27% 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.