Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 2,892 people, this town lies in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland. The average domestic rates bill is £1,364 a year.
Easy on the wallet, harder on other counts. Cost of living is its strong suit — homes sell for a median £167,600, about 3.1 times local household income. Overall, Bessbrook earns an A−: better than just over four fifths of UK towns, and #2 of 10 in Newry, Mourne and Down and #22 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Its schools beat most: GCSE results beat 94% of Northern Ireland towns. The trade-off is health (C−) — life expectancy 79.2 for men, 83.8 for women.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · life expectancy, ONS.
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).
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Bessbrook is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Bessbrook does most differently from other towns.
The Historic Environment Division lists 154 buildings inside Bessbrook’s settlement, 2 of them in the top grade.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Bessbrook.
24% live in social housing, above Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (17%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%) alike. It is the 8th most expensive of 10 towns of 2,500+ in Newry, Mourne and Down.
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 Bessbrook, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
St Paul's High School’s results beat 88% of schools in Northern Ireland like it. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Between them, two primaries and one secondary teach 2,314 pupils in Bessbrook.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Joseph's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 385 | – |
| St Paul's High SchoolLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 1,805 | A |
At the census, just over three quarters of people in Bessbrook called their health good or very good, about level with both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (77%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (77%). Just over a quarter of residents have a disability, near both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (26%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (26%).
| Census 2021 | Bessbrook | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 77% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 11% | 8.6% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 26% | 26% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy among them.
Violence and sexual offences were 43% of the crimes. A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 144 offences in Bessbrook and 85 cases of nuisance behaviour. Violent crime comes to 23.3 per 1,000 residents a year.
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.
Bessbrook counts 154 listed buildings on the national list (HED): 2 Grade A, 3 Grade B+. Its listed buildings include Christ Church, Grade A.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 11% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working from home was the norm for just over one in ten workers at the census. The car took 84% of commuters, higher than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (83%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (79%). About 4% of its commuters stay in Bessbrook for work. There are 0.8 jobs in Bessbrook for each resident in work.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
People 65 and over make up just over a tenth of the town, below Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (18%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (17%) alike. The middle age in Bessbrook is 35.8. Young adults of 15 to 24 are 12% of the population.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Bessbrook | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 23% | 19% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 29% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 11% | 18% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 34% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 15% | 16% |
| Degree level | 23% | 30% | 32% |
NISRA Census 2021 · Newry, Mourne and Down 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 Bessbrook. Best known first.
CathedralNewry Cathedral3.3 km outside town, to the southeastPark or estatePark or estate · National TrustDerrymore Demesne200 m outside town, to the southeastMuseumMuseumNewry and Mourne Museum3.5 km outside town, to the southeastCastleCastleBagenal's Castle3.5 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
4 notable people were born in Bessbrook.
Danny Kennedy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sinnfeinireland/, CC BY 2.0 · Dominic Bradley: Martin McKeown, inpresspics.com, CC BY 2.0 · Samuel George Hobson: AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain
Town in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
Bessbrook is a settlement of 2,892 people, in the Newry, Mourne and Down 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
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
That is 21.9 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Grade A buildings include Christ Church.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. Places are handled by the Education Authority.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £167,600, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 16th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
About the middle for its size: 66% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, it grades C+.
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.