Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
In Mid Glamorgan, Wales, this town has 17,209 residents.
More weak spots than strong ones. Tonypandy grades C− overall, better than 17% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #14 of 32 in Mid Glamorgan. Health is a weak point: nearly one in ten residents report bad or very bad health, and 25% are disabled. Jobs & income is weaker too: households earn a mean £37,929 a year, and 3.5% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Its best grade is for cost of living: a typical home costs £122,000 and rent runs £754 a month. Its other grades sit near the middle: B− for walkability and B for hazard risk.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · health, Census 2021 (the grade adjusts for age) · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Natural Resources Wales.
This town's Health Grade uses ONS's small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for 2019 to 2023, and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. English towns' grades also use OHID's small-area early deaths, hospital admissions and child obesity, which OHID publishes for England only.
The 3 things Tonypandy does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Wales), ordered by how far Tonypandy is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists 7 buildings inside Tonypandy’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade II*.
78% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Tonypandy.
Disability touches a quarter of Tonypandy’s population. Self-reported good health: 74% of the town’s residents. 3 GP practices serve the town.
| Census 2021 | Tonypandy | Mid Glamorgan | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 74% | 77% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.1% | 8.2% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 25% | 23% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · 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.
Two of them are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Some 1,967 pupils attend Tonypandy’s five primaries and one secondary.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Williamstown Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 310 | – |
| Ysgol NantgwynLargest secondary schoolAll-through | All-through | 1,048 | – |
1,209 crimes and 135 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what police recorded inside Tonypandy’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026. Violence comes to 40.1 per 1,000 residents a year. Among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Tonypandy has more crime per resident than 62% of them.
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
Social housing holds one in ten households, lower than both Mid Glamorgan’s towns (15%) and Wales’s towns (18%). Behind the median of £122,000: 564 standard sales inside Tonypandy’s built-up area, September 2023 to August 2026. Owners make up 67% of households.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £275,000 | 22 |
| Semi-detached | £166,500 | 59 |
| Terraced | £119,500 | 475 |
| Flat or maisonette | £65,000 | 8 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Tonypandy counts 7 listed buildings on the national list (Cadw): 2 Grade II*. For its size, Tonypandy has 4 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, below Mid Glamorgan’s towns (9) and Wales’s towns (18) alike.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 14% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working from home was the norm for 14% of workers at the census. 16% of commuters who live in Tonypandy also work there. The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 3.5%.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
People aged 15 to 24 are just over a tenth of the population. 18% are under 15, higher than both Mid Glamorgan’s towns (17%) and Wales’s towns (17%). Over-65s are 19% of the population.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Tonypandy | Mid Glamorgan | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 19% | 20% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 29% | 24% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 5% | 5.3% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 16% | 17% |
| Degree level | 20% | 28% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Mid Glamorgan and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
7 listed buildings in Tonypandy.
Trealaw Cemetery Chapel: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Trefnyddion Bethania Calfinaidd: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0
40 notable people were born in Tonypandy.
Alex Lawless: Mattythewhite, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Danny Winter: Harry Sagers / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · Emrys Hughes: unknown copyright claim by East Ayrshire Council despite 70 years passed, Public domain · Sophie Evans: Robert Clarke, CC BY 2.0 · Tommy Jones: Unknown photographer; cropped using GIMP by U+003F? 22:13, 1 March 2012 (UTC), Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonypandy | 17,209 | — | C− | B+ | C− | D− |
| Gilfach Goch | 1,531 | 1.8 | — | A− | C+ | D− |
| Wattstown | 1,105 | 1.9 | — | B+ | D | D− |
| Porth | 13,352 | 1.9 | D | B+ | D | D− |
| Tylorstown and Pontygwaith | 3,551 | 2 | D | A− | D | D− |
| Rhondda | 13,271 | 2.2 | D | B+ | C− | D− |
| Hendreforgan | 2,445 | 2.2 | — | B+ | C− | D− |
| Tonyrefail | 11,443 | 2.6 | D | B | C− | D |
Gilfach Goch, Wattstown and Hendreforgan have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £122,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £65,000, terraced houses £119,500, semi-detached houses £166,500 and detached houses £275,000.
7 on Cadw’s list, 2 of them Grade II*.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C−. Police recorded 1,209 crimes inside Tonypandy’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, 56% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking. Burglary was rare, with 24 reports in the year.
Town in Mid Glamorgan, Wales
Tonypandy is a built-up area of 17,209 people, in the Rhondda Cynon Taf 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) · Cadw listed buildings, scheduled monuments and registered historic parks and gardens via DataMapWales, 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.
