Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The average domestic rates bill is £1,177 a year. 31,205 people live in this large town in Mid and East Antrim, Northern Ireland.
What it saves you on housing, it gives back elsewhere. Where it does best is cost of living (A+): the median home sold for £153,800, 3.2 years of area income. Ballymena’s overall grade of B puts it better than 57% of UK towns, #51 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Getting around on foot or by bus is easy: 17% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. The trade-off is health (D): life expectancy is 77.6 for men and 82.5 for women. Safety is weaker too — 37.9 violent and sexual offences and 15.2 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, it has less crime per resident than 32%.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy, ONS · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026.
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).
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Ballymena is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 2 things Ballymena does most differently from other towns.
The Historic Environment Division lists 108 buildings inside Ballymena’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 2 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1939.
Explore the history →108 listed buildings in Ballymena, 1 of them Grade I.
St. Patrick's Church: Photo: Andreas F. Borchert · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Adair Arms Hotel: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Methodist Church: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Faith Mission Hall: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ballymena.
20% rent privately, higher than Mid and East Antrim’s towns (18%) and near Northern Ireland’s towns (19%). Households that own their home make up 59%. It is the 6th most expensive of 8 towns of 2,500+ in Mid and East Antrim.
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 Ballymena, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Three of its 19 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Some 8,994 pupils attend Ballymena’s ten primaries and six secondaries.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Colmcilles Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 423 | – |
| Ballymena AcademyLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,228 | C |
| Slemish Integrated CollegeTop results in townPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,076 | A |
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 7.9% of the town. Asked at the census, 77% of residents of Ballymena said they were in good or very good health. 26% of residents in Ballymena live with a disability.
| Census 2021 | Ballymena | Mid and East Antrim | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 76% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.9% | 8.3% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 26% | 27% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence and sexual offences made up 48% of the total. Ballymena logged 2,266 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 1,105 complaints of anti-social conduct. There were 36 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), higher than both Mid and East Antrim’s towns (18.7) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7).
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 · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 12% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: just over one in ten workers, below Mid and East Antrim’s towns (15%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (18%) alike. Half of commuters who live in Ballymena also work there. The car carried 80% of commuters at the census.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Ballymena’s listed buildings include Moravian Church and 21 and 25 Church Road, Grade A. At the top of the list, 1 are Grade A and 2 Grade B+. One historic park, garden or demesne lies here.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 make up 11% of the town, near Mid and East Antrim’s towns (11%) and lower than Northern Ireland’s towns (12%). 20% of residents are 65 or over. The middle age in Ballymena is 41.3. Children under 15 count for 18% of the people here.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Ballymena | Mid and East Antrim | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 17% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 28% | 26% |
| 65+ | 20% | 20% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 31% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 25% | 27% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Mid and East Antrim and Northern Ireland: all residents of their settlements · Women and men: whole data zones, which approximate the town’s boundary · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Ballymena. Best known first.
CastleGalgorm Castle100 m outside town, to the westMuseumMuseumGracehill Village Old School Museumin townMuseumMuseumMid-Antrim Museumin townArt galleryArt galleryWool Tower Art Gallery800 m outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
80 notable people were born in Ballymena.
Liam Neeson: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Steven Davis: Tadeáš Bednarz, CC BY-SA 4.0 · James Nesbitt: Richard Redshaw, CC BY-SA 2.0 · James McHenry: By H. Pollock,, Public domain · Nigel Worthington: Mattythewhite, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Trai Hume: Loaf 1212, CC BY 4.0
Large town in Mid and East Antrim, Northern Ireland
Ballymena is a settlement of 31,205 people, in the Mid and East Antrim 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
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballymena | 31,205 | — | B | A+ | C− | D |
| Cullybackey | 2,659 | 3.3 | B+ | A+ | B− | C |
| Broughshane | 3,097 | 3.3 | A− | A+ | A | C |
| Ahoghill | 3,537 | 3.3 | A− | A+ | A− | C+ |
| Randalstown | 5,151 | 7.9 | B+ | A+ | B | C |
| Antrim | 25,606 | 11 | B− | A+ | C | D |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £153,800, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 12th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
It has more crime per resident than most places its size: 68% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less.
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 Mid and East Antrim is about £1,177 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.
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.