Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
With 3,097 residents, it is a town in Mid and East Antrim, Northern Ireland.
What it saves you on housing, it gives back elsewhere. Housing is within reach: homes sell for a median £197,000, about 4.1 times local household income. Broughshane’s overall A− puts it #3 of 8 in Mid and East Antrim and #17 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Nationally, it does better than 84% of UK towns. Add safety to its strengths (A): police record 10.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, and 5.2 home and vehicle crimes. The drawback is walkability (D−) — on the way to work, 6% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Health is a weak point: life expectancy is 79.2 for men and 82.6 for women.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy, ONS.
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 Broughshane is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Broughshane does most differently from other towns.
The Historic Environment Division lists 20 buildings inside Broughshane’s settlement, 2 of them in the second grade.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Broughshane.
Private renters make up 15% of households. Broughshane is the second most expensive of the 8 towns in Mid and East Antrim, at £197,000. Social housing holds just over one in ten households, lower than both Mid and East Antrim’s towns (16%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). Households that own their home make up 69%.
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 Broughshane, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Its only school is listed below. The town’s primary school has 294 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broughshane Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 294 | – |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 15% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Jobs per working resident: 0.6. Walking ranked second among ways to work, at 3%.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Reported offences in Broughshane came to 70 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 31. For its size, Broughshane records less crime per resident than 96% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. There were 11.3 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), below both Mid and East Antrim’s towns (18.9) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7). Violence and sexual offences accounted for 43% of recorded crime.
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.
Asked at the census, 78% of residents of Broughshane said they were in good or very good health. 26% of residents have a disability, lower than Mid and East Antrim’s towns (27%) and near Northern Ireland’s towns (26%).
| Census 2021 | Broughshane | Mid and East Antrim | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 76% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.3% | 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 · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Broughshane has 65 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents. Grade B+ covers 2 of them.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
16% are under 15, below both Mid and East Antrim’s towns (17%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (19%). People 65 and over make up 26% of the town. At 48.1, the median resident of Broughshane sits in the middle of the age range. Degrees are held by 29% of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Broughshane | Mid and East Antrim | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 9.5% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 28% | 26% |
| 65+ | 26% | 20% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 16% | 16% |
| Degree level | 29% | 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 Broughshane. Best known first.
5 notable people were born in Broughshane.
James Russell: Unknwown, Public domain
Town in Mid and East Antrim, Northern Ireland
Broughshane is a settlement of 3,097 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broughshane | 3,097 | — | A− | A+ | A | C |
| Ballymena | 31,205 | 3.3 | B | A+ | C− | D |
| Cullybackey | 2,659 | 5.5 | B+ | A+ | B− | C |
| Ahoghill | 3,537 | 6.5 | A− | A+ | A− | C+ |
| Randalstown | 5,151 | 11 | B+ | A+ | B | C |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 2.6 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £197,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 47th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
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.