Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The town has 2,502 residents and lies in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland.
Rostrevor’s overall grade, B+, puts it better than 65% of UK towns. That places it #6 of 10 in Newry, Mourne and Down and #43 of 63 in Northern Ireland. Its best grade is for cost of living — the median home sold for £209,000, 3.8 years of area income. School results trail most towns: GCSE results beat 15% of Northern Ireland towns. Most journeys need a car: 9% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport.
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).
The 3 things Rostrevor 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 Rostrevor is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The Historic Environment Division lists 80 buildings inside Rostrevor’s settlement, 1 of them in the top grade, and 3 scheduled monuments.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Rostrevor.
The private rented sector houses nearly a quarter of households. Social housing holds 14% of households, lower than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (17%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20%). The owner-occupied share of households is 61%.
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 Rostrevor, 2022 to 2024, brought to early-2025 prices and weighted by sales.
Below is its only school. 207 pupils attend Rostrevor’s one primary school. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Bronagh's Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 207 | – |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 17% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
There are 0.4 jobs in Rostrevor for each resident in work. About 15% of its commuters stay in Rostrevor for work. The next most common way to work was walking (6%).
NISRA Census 2021, method of travel to work · OGL
Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 14.4 reports per 1,000, lower than both Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (31.8) and Northern Ireland’s towns (20.7). Violence accounts for 15.1 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents a year. The 12 months to August 2026 brought 54 recorded crimes inside Rostrevor’s settlement, and 31 reports of anti-social behaviour. For its size, Rostrevor records less crime per resident than 87% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
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
At the census, 25% of people here had a disability, below Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (26%) and Northern Ireland’s towns (26%) alike. Of the 10 towns in Newry, Mourne and Down, Rostrevor has the second-smallest share in bad or very bad health: 7%.
| Census 2021 | Rostrevor | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 77% | 77% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7% | 8.6% | 8.7% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 25% | 26% | 26% |
NISRA Census 2021, general health and disability · NISRA life expectancy by district electoral area, 2022–24 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy among them, do allow for age.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
The top grade, Grade A, goes to 1 of them. Rostrevor’s listed buildings include Ross Monument, Grade A. It has 80 listed buildings on HED’s Historic Buildings Record: 1 Grade A.
HED list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Young adults of 15 to 24 account for 10% of the town. 18% are under 15, about level with Northern Ireland’s towns (19%) and below Newry, Mourne and Down’s towns (19%). Residents of Rostrevor have a median age of 42.9. Graduates make up 36% of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Northern Ireland, 51% of residents are women.
| Rostrevor | Newry, Mourne and Down | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 19% | 19% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| 65+ | 21% | 18% | 17% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 26% | 25% |
| A levels or similar | 13% | 15% | 16% |
| Degree level | 36% | 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
7 notable people were born in Rostrevor.
T. K. Whitaker: Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Catherine McGrath: Conall from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, CC BY 2.0
The nearest settlements, from NISRA’s 2015 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rostrevor | 2,502 | — | B+ | A+ | A− | C |
| Warrenpoint and Burren | 9,091 | 2.6 | A+ | A+ | B+ | C |
| Kilkeel | 6,633 | 7.8 | B | A+ | B− | C− |
| Newry | 28,530 | 8.2 | B+ | A+ | C− | D |
| Bessbrook | 2,892 | 10 | A− | A+ | C+ | C− |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 13.1 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Grade A building is Ross Monument. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 54 crimes inside Rostrevor’s settlement in the 12 months to August 2026, 59% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
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 £209,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. On cost of living it is the 44th most affordable of 63 Northern Ireland towns.
Town in Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
Rostrevor is a settlement of 2,502 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.