Presbyterian Church · Grade II listed · Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
Maghera’s story
Maghera in pictures
The Historic Environment Division lists 10 buildings inside Maghera’s settlement.
Explore the history →
MagheraMid Ulster
The average domestic rates bill is £1,218 a year. In Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland, this town has 4,235 residents.
2 places within 12 milesMap →
St. Lurach's Church · Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0
Population
4,235
Census 2021 · Mid Ulster council
Median home
£175K
126 sales in 2022–24
Median age
37.8
17% are 65+ · Mid Ulster 15%
Degree level
29%
of residents 16+ · Northern Ireland 32%
Walk, cycle, bus
13%
of commuters · Northern Ireland 18%
TownGrade
A+
#1 of 5 in Mid Ulster
Is Maghera a good place to live?
Maghera grades A+ overall, better than 98% of UK towns, and ranks #1 of 5 in Mid Ulster and #2 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Where it does best is cost of living: homes sell for a median £175,200, about 3 times local household income. It is strong on schools as well (A+) — GCSE results beat 95% of Northern Ireland towns. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: C+ for health and C+ for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · life expectancy, ONS · commuting, Census 2021.
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).
What makes Maghera stand out
The 3 things Maghera does most differently from other towns.
Rates vs council tax, average bill
Rates
£1,218 a year
The average domestic rates bill in Mid Ulster, 2026–27: 35% below England’s average council tax per home, £1,868
Rates are set on the home’s value and also pay for water. Land & Property Services.
Secondary results, Northern Ireland towns
Schools
Secondary results beat 95%
of Northern Ireland towns, on GCSE results (5+ at A* to C, with English and maths)
Department of Education, schools in or within 10 km.
Median sale, £ thousands
Housing
37% below the typical UK town’s £277K
Ward medians, 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices.
How Maghera grades
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Maghera is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Cost of livingRates £1,218 a yearA+Open →SchoolsGCSE results beat 95% of Northern Ireland townsA+Open →SafetyAbove the middle of the towns comparedB+Open →HealthLife expectancy 81.8 for men, 85.4 for womenC+Open →WalkabilityNear typical for the towns comparedC+Open →
Jobs & incomeNo small-area data in NI–
Hazard riskNI flood maps aren’t open–
How TownRatings grades towns →
The data
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Maghera.
HousingCost of living grade A+
Maghera gets an A+ for cost of living grade
23% rent privately, lower than Mid Ulster’s towns (27%) yet higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (19%). No town in Mid Ulster costs more to buy into than Maghera, at £175,200, the highest of 5. Council and housing-body homes hold 17% of households.
£175Kmedian sale
Median sale price · 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices
Maghera£175K
Typical UK town£277K
57%
of households own their home · Northern Ireland 59%
23%
rent privately · Northern Ireland 19%
£1,218
average domestic rates bill, 2026–27 (no council tax in Northern Ireland)
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 Maghera, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
SchoolsA+
Maghera gets an A+ for
St Patrick's College’s results beat 98% of schools in Northern Ireland like it. Of its 3 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Some 1,724 pupils attend Maghera’s two primaries and one secondary.
A+School Grade
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 288 | – |
| St Patrick's CollegeLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,389 | A+ |
Department of Education (NI) · school census and exam results · The grade uses the post-primary schools in or within 10 km; Northern Ireland publishes no primary results.See all 3 schools →
Safety
Violent crime runs low in Maghera: 17.9 per 1,000 residents a year, under Mid Ulster’s towns and Northern Ireland’s towns
Each year, 6.7 burglaries and acts of damage are recorded per 1,000 residents. Maghera logged 161 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 92 complaints of anti-social conduct. For its size, Maghera records less crime per resident than 77% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. Violence and sexual offences made up 52% of the total.
17.9violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a yearB+Safety Grade
Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 77% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people: less crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Reports by type · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Violence & sexual83
Damage & arson22
Drugs21
Other theft18
Other crime9
Shoplifting4
Weapons2
Public order1
Anti-social92
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.
17.9
violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
6.7
burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
20.2
anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 (not graded)
161
crimes recorded in the 12 months to August 2026
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.
History
Maghera’s heritage list runs to 10 buildings
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Only one town in Mid Ulster has fewer listed buildings for its size than Maghera.
10listed buildings
Listed buildings by grade · HED
Grade A0
Grade B+0
Grade B10
0
scheduled monuments
0
historic parks, gardens and demesnes
24
listed buildings per 10,000 residents · typical town in England and Wales 24
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Health
Bad health is less common in Maghera than in Mid Ulster’s towns or across Northern Ireland’s towns: 7.1% of residents
Men in Maghera can expect to live to 81.8, women to 85.4 (2022–24). 25% of residents have a disability, above Mid Ulster’s towns (23%) but below Northern Ireland’s towns (26%). Asked at the census, 78% of residents of Maghera said they were in good or very good health.
78%good or very good healthC+Health Grade
General health, self-reported
Good or very good 78%Fair 15%Bad or very bad 7%
| Census 2021 | Maghera | Mid Ulster | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 78% | 79% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.1% | 7.5% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 25% | 23% | 26% |
81.8
life expectancy at birth, men (2022–24)
85.4
life expectancy at birth, women
Northern Ireland towns’ Health Grades use NISRA’s life expectancy for 2022 to 2024 in the district electoral areas around the town, and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age to the same standard as England and Wales. Healthy life expectancy isn’t published for Northern Ireland’s areas, and its early-death, hospital and child-obesity figures cover district electoral areas or council areas rather than small areas, so the Health page compares those with Northern Ireland without grading them.
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy among them, do allow for age.
Work & commute
Walking, cycling and public transport carry fewer commuters in Maghera than in Mid Ulster’s towns or Northern Ireland’s towns: 13%
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 13% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
By car: that was how 86% of commuters travelled at the census. Work in town: 28% of resident commuters. Maghera counts 1.1 jobs per working resident.
13%walk, cycle or ride
How commuters got to work · March 2021
Driving86%
On foot10%
Bus2%
13%
worked mainly from home in March 2021
C+
Walkability: more walkable than 44% of UK towns
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Who lives here
Children make up 22% of Maghera, above Mid Ulster’s towns and Northern Ireland’s towns
Half of Maghera is older than 37.8, half younger. Young adults of 15 to 24 are just over one in ten residents, lower than both Mid Ulster’s towns (12%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (12%). The 65-and-over age group makes up 17% of residents.
37.8median age
MagheraMid UlsterNorthern Ireland
Ages · share of residents
17%
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications29%
A levels or similar16%
Degree level29%
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Maghera | Mid Ulster | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 22% | 20% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 29% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 24% | 26% |
| 65+ | 17% | 15% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 29% | 33% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 14% | 16% |
| Degree level | 29% | 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
Keep exploring
Everything we know about Maghera
12pages on Maghera
The big questions
Famous people from Maghera
17 notable people were born in Maghera.
E
Eve BuntingAmerican children's writer · 1928–2023F
Francis LaganIrish Roman Catholic bishop (1934-2020)Photo credits
Charles Thomson: Joseph Wright / Formerly attributed to Matthew Pratt, Public domain · Kenny Shiels: Seaninryan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Matthew D. Lagan: From 1900's "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume 10" published by James T. White & Company, New York., Public domain
Maghera’s neighbours
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
MagherafeltDungivenMaghera
How the neighbours grade
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maghera | 4,235 | — | A+ | A+ | B+ | C+ |
| Magherafelt | 8,996 | 6.9 | A− | A+ | C | C− |
| Dungiven | 3,346 | 11 | A+ | A+ | A− | C− |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Questions about Maghera
Are schools in Maghera good?
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 1 post-primary school is inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
Is Maghera expensive to live in?
On cost of living it is the 4th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
How much are the rates in Maghera?
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.
About Maghera
Town in Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland
Maghera is a settlement of 4,235 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
- Population
- 4,235 (Census 2021)
- Council
- Mid Ulster
- Nation
- Northern Ireland
- Area
- 0.8 sq mi (2 km²)
- NISRA code
- N11000477
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.