The data are hard on it. Homes are dear: a typical home costs £220,000 and rent runs £936 a month. With a C− overall, Southport is better than 17% of UK towns and ranks #14 of 25 in Merseyside. Walkability is its strong suit (A−): just over a fifth of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Its other grades sit near the middle: C+ for schools and B for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Southport is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Southport.
History
Southport keeps more of its old housing than Merseyside’s towns or England’s towns: 41% built before 1919
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 4 of them. Southport has 271 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 4 Grade II*. 3 registered parks and gardens lie in the town.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
SchoolsC+
Exam results at Southport’s schools trail 56% of towns in England
Secondary results at the town’s 5 secondary schools: an Attainment 8 score of 45.8, with 44% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Shoreside Primary School’s results beat 87% of schools in England like it. Below are three of its 27 schools, each with why it was picked. Between them, 19 primaries and five secondaries teach 10,653 pupils in Southport.
Department for Education · GIAS, Key Stage 2 and GCSE resultsSee all 27 schools →
Who lives here
Older residents shape Southport: 26% are 65 or over, above Merseyside’s towns and England’s towns
15% are under 15, below both Merseyside’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%). People aged 15 to 24 are nearly a tenth of the population. Ages in Southport split evenly at 48.4: half are older, half younger.
48.4median age
SouthportMerseysideEngland
Ages · share of residents
26%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications18%
Apprenticeship6%
A levels or similar17%
Degree level32%
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
WomenEnglandMen
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
ONS Census 2021 · Merseyside and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Work & commuteJobs & income grade C
3.2% of 16 to 64s in Southport claim unemployment benefits, more than in both Merseyside’s towns and England’s towns
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 26% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Short trips to work, under 5 km: 50%, higher than both Merseyside’s towns (45%) and England’s towns (45%). Work in town: 55% of resident commuters. Jobs per working resident: 0.8.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
HousingCost of living grade C−
Most households in Southport own their home: 68%, more than in both Merseyside’s towns and England’s towns
24% rent privately, higher than both Merseyside’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (21%). Council and housing-body homes hold 8% of households. Behind the median of £220,000: 4,116 standard sales inside Southport’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026.
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Health
Life expectancy in Southport is shorter than in 76% of UK towns
12 GP practices serve the town; 81% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 22% of residents in Southport live with a disability. At the census, 6.7% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, between Merseyside’s towns (7.7%) and England’s towns (5.2%).
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Safety
Violent crime runs high in Southport: 37.2 per 1,000 residents a year, above Merseyside’s towns and England’s towns
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Among the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Southport has less crime per resident than 83% of them. Over the year to August 2026, 6,827 offences were reported locally, along with 746 incidents of anti-social behaviour. Of all the crimes, 48% were violence and sexual offences.
37.2violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a yearCSafety Grade
Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 83% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: less crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
More crimeLess crime
Reports by type · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Violence & sexual3,247
Public order799
Shoplifting707
Damage & arson492
Drugs485
Other theft429
Vehicle crime183
Burglary141
Anti-social746
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.
37.2
violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
9.8
burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
7.5
anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 (not graded)
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Miranda Richardson: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 · A. J. P. Taylor: Gillman & Soame, Public domain · David Mitchell: Mariusz Kubik, http://www.mariuszkubik.pl, CC BY 2.5 · Jack Rodwell: Leon Queeley derivative work: Dudek1337, CC BY 2.0 · Marc Almond: shiver_shi, CC BY-SA 2.0 · David Jones: Devon78, CC BY-SA 4.0
Rufford has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Questions about Southport
Is Southport safe?
Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades C.
Is Southport expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £220,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £132,000, terraced houses £183,000, semi-detached houses £220,000 and detached houses £350,000. Household incomes are lower than in 82% of UK towns, so cost of living grades C−.
About Southport
Large town in Merseyside, England
Southport is a built-up area of 94,438 people, in the Sefton 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
Population
94,438 (Census 2021)
Council
Sefton (mostly)
County
Merseyside
Region
North West
Area
9.9 sq mi (25.7 km²)
ONS code
E63001029
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.
