Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The average domestic rates bill is £1,218 a year. The town has 8,996 residents and lies in Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland.
Easy on the wallet, harder on other counts. Housing is within reach (A+): the median home sold for £175,200, 3 years of area income. Schools are a strength too — GCSE results beat 92% of Northern Ireland towns. Health is a weak point: men here can expect to live to 79.2, women to 83. Crime is the sore point: 32.2 violent and sexual offences and 10.3 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Against UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, it has more crime per resident than 72%. The overall grade lands at A−, better than just over four fifths of UK towns. That places it #3 of 5 in Mid Ulster and #21 of 63 in Northern Ireland.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · 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).
The 3 things Magherafelt 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 Magherafelt is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 24 buildings inside Magherafelt’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Magherafelt.
No town in Mid Ulster costs more to buy into than Magherafelt, at £175,200, the highest of 5. Private renters make up 26% of households, about level with Mid Ulster’s towns (27%) and above Northern Ireland’s towns (19%). 16% of households rent from a council or housing body.
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 Magherafelt, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Sperrin Integrated College’s results beat 89% of schools in Northern Ireland like it. Of its 11 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. Some 5,625 pupils attend Magherafelt’s four primaries and five secondaries.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Family Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 562 | – |
| St Mary's GrammarLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,156 | A− |
| Sperrin Integrated CollegeTop results in townPost-primary | Post-primary | 759 | A |
23% of residents in Magherafelt live with a disability.
| Census 2021 | Magherafelt | Mid Ulster | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 79% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.2% | 7.5% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 23% | 23% | 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.
In the 12 months to August 2026, the PSNI logged 503 crimes and 289 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Magherafelt’s settlement. There were 30.7 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Mid Ulster’s towns (22.3) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7) alike. Violence and sexual offences accounted for 55% 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Magherafelt’s listed buildings include Court House, Union Road, Grade A. It has one scheduled monument. Per 10,000 residents, Magherafelt counts 27 listed buildings, below both Mid Ulster’s towns (36) and Northern Ireland’s towns (34).
HED 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.
By car: that was how 84% of commuters travelled at the census. Work in town: 38% of resident commuters. For every resident in work, Magherafelt has 1.5 jobs.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
31% of adults hold a degree, about level with Northern Ireland’s towns (32%) and above Mid Ulster’s towns (26%). Those 65 and older account for 15% of residents. Residents of Magherafelt have a median age of 38.1. The under-15s are 20% of the population here.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Magherafelt | Mid Ulster | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 20% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 29% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 24% | 26% |
| 65+ | 15% | 15% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 26% | 33% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 14% | 16% |
| Degree level | 31% | 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
24 notable people were born in Magherafelt.
Dean Shiels: Stuart Chalmers, CC BY 2.0 · Jonathan Anderson: Marie Claire Korea, CC BY 3.0 · Simone Magill: Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aaron Donnelly: Stuartp1213, CC0 · Terry McFlynn: Camw, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Harriet Russell Morison: New Zealand Department of Labour, Public domain
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magherafelt | 8,996 | — | A− | A+ | C | C− |
| Maghera | 4,235 | 6.9 | A+ | A+ | B+ | C+ |
| Cookstown | 12,546 | 9.4 | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Randalstown | 5,151 | 12 | B+ | A+ | B | C |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 4 post-primary schools are inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
On cost of living it is the 4th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Burglary was rare, with 13 reports in the year.
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
Magherafelt is a settlement of 8,996 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.