Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 28,530 people, this large town lies in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland. The average domestic rates bill is £1,364 a year.
Housing is within reach: homes sell for a median £173,700, about 3.2 times local household income. The drawback is health: life expectancy is 77.7 for men and 80.6 for women. It also trails on safety: 35.7 violent and sexual offences and 19.9 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Set beside UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, its crime per resident is higher than in 71%. Put together, the subjects come to a B+ overall, better than just over two thirds of UK towns. Its place in the ranking is #4 of 10 in Newry, Mourne and Down and #40 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 Newry 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 Newry is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 157 buildings inside Newry’s settlement, 2 of them in the top grade, and 10 scheduled monuments.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1900.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newry.
The social rented sector houses 18% of households. Owners make up 56% of households, close to Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (58%) and below Northern Ireland’s towns (59%). It is the 6th most expensive of 10 towns of 2,500+ locally, 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 Newry, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Sacred Heart Grammar School’s results beat 89% of schools in Northern Ireland like it. Below are three of its 17 schools, each with why it was picked. Some 7,942 pupils attend Newry’s eight primaries and seven secondaries.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Moninna's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 476 | – |
| Abbey Christian Brothers GrammarLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary | Post-primary | 932 | C+ |
| Sacred Heart Grammar SchoolTop results in townPost-primary | Post-primary | 873 | A |
Nearly one in ten residents described their health as bad or very bad, above Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (8.6%) and close to Northern Ireland’s towns (8.7%). Disability touches just over a quarter of the town’s population.
| Census 2021 | Newry | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 77% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 9.1% | 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.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Newry logged 2,437 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 1,186 complaints of anti-social conduct. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 40.9 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
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.
At the census, 16% of commuters got to work without a car. Of the commuters living in Newry, 53% work in the town itself. Working mainly from home: 14% of workers, lower than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (15%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (18%).
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.
Newry’s listed buildings include the Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman, Grade A. At the top of the list, 2 are Grade A and 22 Grade B+. Listed buildings per head: 55 for every 10,000 residents of the town.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The age that splits Newry in two is 38.9. Children under 15 make up 20%, near Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (19%) and higher than Northern Ireland’s towns (19%).
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Newry | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 20% | 19% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 16% | 18% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 28% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 15% | 16% |
| Degree level | 31% | 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 Newry. Best known first.
CathedralNewry Cathedralin town
CastleNarrow Water Keep4.3 km outside town, to the southeastMuseumMuseumNewry and Mourne Museumin townCastleCastleBagenal's Castlein townPark or estatePark or estate · National TrustDerrymore Demesne200 m outside town, to the northwestCastleCastleMount Caulfield800 m outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
157 listed buildings in Newry, 2 of them Grade I.
Parish Church of St. Mary (C of I): Photo: West Marshall · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman: Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · St Patrick's Church (C of I): Photo: Cmcgrath62 · Public domain · Town Hall, Bank Parade: Photo: Stefan Schäfer, Lich · CC BY-SA 4.0
94 notable people were born in Newry.
Pat Jennings: VEO15, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Peter McParland: Tommy Pinball, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Tomm Moore: Boungawa, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Colin Clarke: Runningboards, Public domain · Valene Kane: Elena Ternovaja, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ryan McGivern: Jon Candy, CC BY-SA 2.0
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newry | 28,530 | — | B+ | A+ | C− | D |
| Bessbrook | 2,892 | 2.4 | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
| Warrenpoint and Burren | 9,091 | 6.4 | A+ | A+ | B+ | C |
| Rostrevor | 2,502 | 8.2 | B+ | A+ | A− | C |
| Banbridge | 17,400 | 12 | B | A+ | C+ | C− |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 2.3 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Grade A buildings include Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman. It also has 10 scheduled monuments.
Northern Ireland publishes no primary results. 6 post-primary schools are inside the town; places are handled by the Education Authority.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 2,437 crimes inside Newry’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026, 41% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale in 2022 to 2024, at early-2025 prices, was £173,700, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 20th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Large town in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
Newry is a settlement of 28,530 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
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.