Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0How Mid Ulster stacks up
Mid Ulster leads every area on safety: police recorded 14.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year. One of the best towns in the UK is in Mid Ulster: Coalisland for affordability. It all adds up to the top overall score of any area, an A+.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
1st of 65A+100/100 Consistently safe. No area records less violent crime per resident than Mid Ulster: police recorded 14.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year. No area puts more of its town residents in the safest quarter of towns (100%). Among its neighbours it does best on safety, with Fermanagh and Omagh second.
With theft, burglary and the rest counted too, 28 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, the lowest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime (Police Service of Northern Ireland), September 2025 to August 2026; Census 2021 residents.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 5 Mid Ulster towns.
Few weak spots, town by town
At the quiet end sit Maghera (#318), Cookstown (#1,026) and Dungannon (#1,027) of 2,138 towns.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| Surrey | 71% | 2% |
Town centres and the people who live there
Each crime on police.uk is pinned to a nearby street or public place, not an address; both figures count crimes where those points fall. The area-wide rate takes in town centres, stations and shopping streets, where many offences are recorded but few people live. Our town grades leave shop theft and other town-centre crime out and count violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage, the crimes that reach people at home.
Schools
12th of 90A88/100 Strong schools, town after town. 78% of pupils get five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, against 75% across Northern Ireland (3rd highest of 11 Northern Ireland council areas). 62% of town residents live in top-quarter towns such as Maghera and Magherafelt, and almost none at the bottom.
Source: Department of Education school performance: pupils with five or more GCSEs at A*–C including English and maths, every post-primary school in the district. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 5 Mid Ulster towns.
Cost of living
3rd of 98A+98/100 Affordable, town after town. A typical home sold for £189,700 over the past year, 3.2 times the average household’s income (4th lowest of 98 areas). Few places anywhere beat Coalisland, first of 2,515 towns for affordability. No area puts more of its town residents in the most affordable quarter of towns (100%).
The middle home sold for £189,700 over the past year, 26th lowest of the areas.
Average domestic rates bill £1,218 (Northern Ireland has rates, not council tax). Shown for context.
Source: NISRA and Land & Property Services median house prices, brought up to date with each district’s house price index; household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size; ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); domestic rates. Prices: NISRA/LPS median of all verified residential sales in 2024, brought to 2025Q3..2026Q2 prices with the LGD's LPS house price index; 5-year change = LPS index 2025Q3..2026Q2 vs 2020Q3..2021Q2.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 5 Mid Ulster towns.
Health
48th of 98B−52/100 Council area health figures beat its towns. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Maghera comes closest, at #1,203 of 2,515. Mid Ulster leads every Northern Ireland council area on this measure: healthy life expectancy at birth is 68.2 years. The council area total looks better than its towns do.
Total life expectancy is 81.5 years (4th longest).
Source: ONS healthy life expectancy by district, 2022 to 2024 (a survey-based figure, converted to the scale of the England and Wales small-area figures), and NISRA life expectancy; men and women averaged. Ranked among Northern Ireland’s districts only.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 5 Mid Ulster towns.
Jobs & income
6th of 98A+95/100 Among the best-off areas. No neighbour beats it on incomes; Fermanagh and Omagh comes closest. Households take in £58,900 a year on average before tax, against £50,800 across Northern Ireland (14th highest of 98 areas).
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 2.2% of working-age adults (9th lowest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: Household income estimated from ONS household income (GDHI) per head and household size (Northern Ireland has no small-area income figures); claimant count (August 2026) by district.
Mid Ulster has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
Getting about
95th of 98D−3/100 Among the most car-dependent areas. 9% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 14% across Northern Ireland (2nd lowest of 98 areas). No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Dungannon, #392.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 16% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work by district; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 5 Mid Ulster towns.
Flood risk
Not gradedNot graded: no flood-risk data for Northern Ireland yet. We have not yet loaded flood-risk maps for Northern Ireland, so its council areas, like its towns, have no flood-risk grade. Their overall grade weighs the other subjects.
Growth
28th of 98B+72/100 Healthy growth. Mid Ulster grew 9.9% from 2011 to 2024, against 6.3% for Northern Ireland.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +1.4% (31st slowest).
Source: NISRA mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Mid Ulster has no graded towns of 2,500 or more with this measure, too few to compare town by town (we need 5); its grade rests on the official figure.
How Mid Ulster compares to its neighbours
None of its neighbours (Fermanagh and Omagh, Derry City and Strabane, Causeway Coast and Glens, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon and Antrim and Newtownabbey) matches it on safety, cost of living and jobs and income.
| Mid Ulster | Fermanagh and Omagh | Derry City and Strabane | Causeway Coast and Glens | Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | A+ 1001st of 65 | A+ 973rd of 65 | C− 1655th of 65 | B 5530th of 65 | B+ 7020th of 65 |
| Safety | A+ 1001st official · 100% in top towns | A+ 982nd official | C+ 3819th official · 9% in top towns | A− 835th official · 40% in top towns | A 947th official · 100% in top towns |
| Schools | A 883rd official · 62% in top towns | A+ 1001st official | C− 168th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 399th official · 13% in top towns | D 610th official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | A+ 984th official · 100% in top towns | A+ 9511th official | A 9312th official · 100% in top towns | A 8719th official · 100% in top towns | A+ 977th official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | B− 521st official · 0% in top towns | B 645th official | D− 111th official · 0% in top towns | D 89th official · 0% in top towns | C 287th official · 3% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | A+ 9514th official | A− 8234th official | C 2649th official | B 6338th official | A− 7929th official |
| Getting about | D− 397th official · 0% in top towns | D− 098th official | D 1089th official · 0% in top towns | D 694th official · 0% in top towns | D− 496th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Growth | B+ 7231st official | C 3270th official | C 2873rd official | D 1287th official | A− 8222nd official |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.