Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland, home to 8,298 people. The average domestic rates bill is £1,364 a year.
Good value, with catches elsewhere. Where it falls short is schools — GCSE results beat 7% of Northern Ireland towns. Prices are modest for what you get: the median home sold for £234,400, 4.3 years of area income. Walkability is a strength too — 17% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Overall, that makes a C+, good for #60 of 63 in Northern Ireland. On that grade it does better than nearly two fifths of UK towns.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry (LPS), 2022 to 2024 at early-2025 prices · 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).
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Northern Ireland), ordered by how far Newcastle is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Newcastle does most differently from other towns.
The Historic Environment Division lists 29 buildings inside Newcastle’s settlement, and 3 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →29 listed buildings in Newcastle.
Harbour and Watch House. 'Newcastle Harbour', Ballaghbeg: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Tower at former railway station: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Newcastle Presbyterian Church: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · War memorial: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newcastle.
No town in Newry, Mourne and Down costs more to buy into than Newcastle, at £234,400, the highest of 10. The private rented sector houses 19% of households. 20% live in social housing, above Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (17%) and close to Northern Ireland’s towns (20%).
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 Newcastle, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Two of its 4 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Between them, three primaries and one secondary teach 1,457 pupils in Newcastle.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 362 | – |
| Shimna Integrated CollegeLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 678 | C+ |
Among adults, 35% have a degree. Young adults of 15 to 24 are 10% of residents, lower than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (11%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (12%). The under-15s are 18% of the population here. Newcastle has a median age of 45.
53% women, 47% men
About 90 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Newcastle | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 19% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 22% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 24% | 18% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 15% | 16% |
| Degree level | 35% | 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
Among the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Newcastle has more crime per resident than 82% of them. Per 1,000 residents, 15.4 burglaries and acts of damage are recorded a year. A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 530 offences in Newcastle and 510 cases of nuisance behaviour. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 51.7 reports per 1,000, higher than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (29.9) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7).
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
Of the 10 towns in Newry, Mourne and Down, Newcastle has the second-largest share in bad or very bad health: 9.2%. At the census, three quarters of people in Newcastle called their health good or very good, lower than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (77%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (77%). Men in Newcastle can expect to live to 79.6, women to 83.9 (2022–24).
| Census 2021 | Newcastle | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 75% | 77% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.2% | 8.6% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 30% | 26% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy among them.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 19% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Only one town in Newry, Mourne and Down has fewer listed buildings for its size than Newcastle. 3 scheduled monuments lie in the town.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Newcastle. Best known first.
CastleDundrum Castle3.2 km outside town, to the northAttractionAttractionThe Starks Find Direwolf Pups2.4 km outside town, to the westAttractionAttractionThe Wildling Pit3 km outside town, to the westAttractionAttractionSlieve Donard2.8 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Town in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
Newcastle is a settlement of 8,298 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 →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle | 8,298 | — | C+ | A+ | C− | C− |
| Downpatrick | 11,545 | 11 | B | A+ | D | C− |
| Kilkeel | 6,633 | 11 | B | A+ | B− | C− |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 1 post-primary school is inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 530 crimes inside Newcastle’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026, 53% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
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 Newry, Mourne and Down is about £1,364 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.
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.