Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 12,546 in Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland. The average domestic rates bill is £1,218 a year.
Cookstown grades A− overall against UK towns: better than 79% of UK towns, and #25 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A+): the 4th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns: median sale £174,000, 3 years of area income; rates £1,218 a year. Its weakest is health (C−): life expectancy 79.1 for men, 83.1 for women.
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).
The 3 things Cookstown does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Cookstown is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 60 buildings inside Cookstown’s settlement, 5 of them in the second grade, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Cookstown.
Private renters make up 28% of households, near Mid Ulster’s towns (27%) and higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (19%). 14% of households live in social housing. The owner-occupied share of households is 55%.
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 Cookstown, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Below are three of its 7 schools, each with why it was picked. Cookstown High School’s results beat 84% of schools in Northern Ireland like it. Between them, four primaries and two secondaries teach 3,414 pupils in the town.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Trinity Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 678 | – |
| Holy Trinity CollegeLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,015 | C |
| Cookstown High SchoolTop results in townPost-primary | Post-primary | 897 | A− |
Cookstown’s share in bad or very bad health, 8.7%, is the second highest of the 5 towns in Mid Ulster. At the census, just over a quarter of people here had a disability, about level with Northern Ireland’s towns (26%) and above Mid Ulster’s towns (23%). Men in Cookstown can expect to live to 79.1, women to 83.1 (2022–24).
| Census 2021 | Cookstown | Mid Ulster | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 79% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 8.7% | 7.5% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 26% | 23% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · These shares come straight from the census, without allowing for age, and young towns benefit; the Health Grade instead weighs age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 10% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
56% of commuters who live in Cookstown also work there. Home was the main workplace for one in ten workers at the census. For every resident in work, Cookstown has 1.4 jobs.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
609 crimes and 398 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what the PSNI recorded inside Cookstown’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026. Violent crime comes to 27.4 per 1,000 residents a year. Homes saw 10.6 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, near Mid Ulster’s towns (10.2) and higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (8.8). Of all the crimes, 51% were violence and sexual offences.
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 heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Cookstown has the second most listed buildings of the towns in Mid Ulster. Grade B+ covers 5 of them. The national list protects one ancient monument in the town.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Under-15s account for 20% of the population. 11% of the population is aged 15 to 24, below Mid Ulster’s towns (12%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (12%) alike. Cookstown has a median age of 38.1. Those 65 and older account for 16% of residents.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Cookstown | Mid Ulster | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 20% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 29% | 29% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 24% | 26% |
| 65+ | 16% | 15% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 32% | 33% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 14% | 16% |
| Degree level | 24% | 26% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Mid Ulster 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 Cookstown. Best known first.
Museum · National TrustWellbrook Beetling Mill4.4 km outside town, to the west
Historic houseLissan House1.4 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
30 notable people were born in Cookstown.
Typhoid Mary: Unknown authorUnknown author. First published in the June 20, 1909 issue of The New York American., Public domain · Aaron Hughes: Садовников Дмитрий, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Stuart Dallas: Jrppezza, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernadette Devlin McAliskey: Roland Gerrits / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · Jacqueline Burns: Frank Haug, CC BY 3.0
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown | 12,546 | — | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Coalisland | 5,468 | 7.5 | B | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Magherafelt | 8,996 | 9.4 | A− | A+ | C | C− |
| Dungannon | 16,282 | 9.7 | A | A+ | C+ | C− |
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 £174,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 4th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
About the middle for its size: 34% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C+.
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 Ulster is about £1,218 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.
Town in Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland
Cookstown is a settlement of 12,546 people, in the Mid Ulster 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
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.