Photo: Eric Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0How Newry, Mourne and Down stacks up
Alongside the 15th lowest home prices against income of any area and well-off households, Newry, Mourne and Down has car dependence. The sum of it: an A and a score of 92, 6th of 65 graded areas. Bessbrook and Newry rank near the top in the UK for schools; Newcastle and Kilkeel sit near the bottom.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole council area beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
11th of 65A−84/100 Safe, town after town. Almost no one here lives in a bottom-quarter town; Saintfield and Rostrevor are typical. By police.uk’s count, violent crime here comes to 18.7 offences per 1,000 residents a year, 20% below the figure for Northern Ireland. Every neighbour scores higher, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Ards and North Down among them.
All recorded crime (anti-social behaviour left out): 40 per 1,000 residents a year, 8th 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. 10 Newry, Mourne and Down towns.
Hardly any high-crime towns
Warrenpoint and Burren leads its towns at #302 of 2,138, with Killyleagh and Kilkeel close behind.
| 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% | |
| Newry, Mourne and Down | 41% | 0% |
What the two figures count
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
17th of 90A−82/100 Strong schools, but not everywhere. Newry, Mourne and Down’s sixteen-year-olds rank 4th highest of Northern Ireland’s council areas: 76% get five or more good GCSEs including English and maths. 49% of town residents live in top-quarter towns like Bessbrook and Newry, and 33% in bottom-quarter places such as Newcastle and Kilkeel. It leads its neighbours on schools, ahead of Ards and North Down.
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. 10 Newry, Mourne and Down towns.
Cost of living
11th of 98A90/100 Consistently affordable. A typical home sold for £214,500 over the past year, 3.9 times the average household’s income (15th lowest of 98 areas). No area puts more of its town residents in the most affordable quarter of towns (100%). Homes are dear in pounds (45th lowest prices) but local incomes keep up: 15th lowest against income.
The middle home sold for £214,500 over the past year, 45th lowest of the areas.
Average domestic rates bill £1,364 (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. 10 Newry, Mourne and Down towns.
Health
55th of 98C+44/100 Healthier area-wide than in its towns. Newry, Mourne and Down ranks 3rd longest for healthy life expectancy, at 66.7 years. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Saintfield, #1,376. The council area total looks better than its towns do.
Life expectancy at birth: 81.3 years, 5th 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. 10 Newry, Mourne and Down towns.
Jobs & income
15th of 98A86/100 Better off than most areas. Households take in £54,800 a year on average (21st highest), and 2.6% of working-age adults claim out-of-work benefits.
Claimant rate: 2.6% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 22nd lowest. Counted half 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.
Newry, Mourne and Down 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
93rd of 98D6/100 Among the most car-dependent areas. Even its best town, Kilkeel, ranks #1,021 of 2,515. Newry, Mourne and Down ranks 5th lowest for getting to work without a car: 9% of commuters walk, cycle or ride.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 18% 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. 10 Newry, Mourne and Down 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
45th of 98B55/100 Growing a bit faster than average. NISRA estimates put 183,115 people here in 2024, +6.3% on 2011 (46th slowest).
Since the 2021 Census: +0.4%, 13th slowest.
Source: NISRA mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Newry, Mourne and Down 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 Newry, Mourne and Down compares to its neighbours
Newry, Mourne and Down beats every neighbour on schools; on safety, every neighbour beats it.
| Newry, Mourne and Down | Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | Lisburn and Castlereagh | Ards and North Down | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | A 926th of 65 | B+ 7020th of 65 | A+ 954th of 65 | B+ 7219th of 65 |
| Safety | A− 846th official · 41% in top towns | A 947th official · 100% in top towns | A+ 973rd official · 100% in top towns | A 928th official · 100% in top towns |
| Schools | A− 824th official · 49% in top towns | D 610th official · 0% in top towns | B− 516th official · 6% in top towns | B 605th official · 10% in top towns |
| Cost of living | A 9015th official · 100% in top towns | A+ 977th official · 100% in top towns | B+ 7338th official · 100% in top towns | A− 7636th official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | C+ 443rd official · 0% in top towns | C 287th official · 3% in top towns | B+ 721st official · 13% in top towns | C 276th official · 0% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | A 8621st official | A− 7929th official | A 9326th official | B+ 6747th official |
| Getting about | D 694th official · 0% in top towns | D− 496th official · 0% in top towns | D 1188th official · 0% in top towns | D 990th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded |
| Growth | B 5553rd official | A− 8222nd official | A 8815th official | B− 4759th 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.