Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
In Norfolk, East of England, this large town has 24,474 residents.
A tough set of grades. Its weakest is health (D) — life expectancy is 77.4 for men and 82 for women. With a D overall, Gorleston-on-Sea is better than 7% of UK towns and ranks #47 of 51 in Norfolk. It also trails on jobs & income (D): the mean household earns £43,264 a year. Walkability is its strong suit: on the way to work, 27% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. At a median £195,000, a home costs 4.5 times the yearly income of households in the Great Yarmouth council area.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Gorleston-on-Sea is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Gorleston-on-Sea does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 26 buildings inside Gorleston-on-Sea’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade II*.
22% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1900.
Explore the history →26 listed buildings in Gorleston-on-Sea.
Roman Catholic Church of St Peter, Gorleston: Photo: John Rostron · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Andrew: Photo: John Rostron · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Old Custom House: Photo: TeoUtting · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Feathers Inn: Photo: TeoUtting · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Gorleston-on-Sea.
Children under 15 make up 17%, about level with England’s towns (18%) and above Norfolk’s towns (16%). The 65-and-over age group makes up 22% of residents. Gorleston-on-Sea has a median age of 43.5.
52% women, 48% men
About 91 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Gorleston-on-Sea | Norfolk | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 16% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 22% | 24% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 25% | 21% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.4% | 6.4% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 20% | 26% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Norfolk and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Secondary results at the town’s 2 secondary schools: an Attainment 8 score of 41.2, with 36% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Stradbroke Primary Academy’s results beat 87% of schools in England like it. Key Stage 2 results at the town’s 6 primary schools: 60% of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Three of its 10 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ormiston Cliff Park Primary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 484 | B+ |
| Ormiston Venture AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 889 | B− |
| Stradbroke Primary AcademyTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 210 | A |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 15% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Gorleston-on-Sea counts 1.1 jobs per working resident. Of the commuters living locally, 33% work in the town itself. For 65% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. 15% of workers worked mainly from home, below Norfolk’s towns (25%) and England’s towns (31%) alike.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
76% of Gorleston-on-Sea’s residents described their health as good or very good at the census, lower than both Norfolk’s towns (79%) and England’s towns (82%). At the census, 7.5% of people here described their health as bad or very bad. One GP practice serves the town; 62% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Women here live to 82 on average and men to 77.4 (2019–23).
| Census 2021 | Gorleston-on-Sea | Norfolk | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 76% | 79% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.5% | 5.6% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 24% | 20% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence and sexual offences were just over half of the crimes. Homes saw 14.2 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, above Norfolk’s towns (6) and England’s towns (9.4) alike. Reported offences in Gorleston-on-Sea came to 1,867 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 336.
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 ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Only one of the 52 towns in Norfolk costs less to buy into than Gorleston-on-Sea, whose median sale is £195,000. 57% of households own their home, lower than both Norfolk’s towns (64%) and England’s towns (61%). The median sale, £195,000, comes from 829 standard sales inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £352,500 | 214 |
| Semi-detached | £215,000 | 200 |
| Terraced | £169,000 | 352 |
| Flat or maisonette | £105,000 | 63 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 2 of them. Gorleston-on-Sea counts 26 listed buildings on the national list (Historic England): 2 Grade II*. Listed buildings per head: 11 for every 10,000 residents of the town.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Gorleston-on-Sea. Best known first.
Abbey or priory · English HeritageGreat Yarmouth Grey Friary1.8 km outside town, to the north
Historic houseSomerleyton Hall and Gardens4.6 km outside town, to the southwest
Theme parkPleasurewood Hills4.7 km outside town, to the south
Theme parkJoyland2.3 km outside town, to the north
PierBritannia Pier2.3 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
12 notable people were born in Gorleston-on-Sea.
Remi Matthews: MichaelEmilio, CC BY 4.0 · William Fleming: stavros 1, Public domain
Large town in Norfolk, England
Gorleston-on-Sea is a built-up area of 24,474 people, in the Great Yarmouth council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gorleston-on-Sea | 24,474 | — | D | C | C− | D |
| Bradwell | 11,632 | 0.9 | C− | D | B | C+ |
| Hopton on Sea | 2,575 | 2.4 | C− | D | C | C |
| Great Yarmouth | 28,979 | 2.5 | D− | B− | D− | D− |
| Belton | 3,603 | 2.5 | D | D | B+ | C |
| Corton | 1,134 | 4.1 | — | A | B+ | B− |
| Caister-on-Sea | 9,095 | 5.3 | D | D | C+ | C |
| Ormesby St Margaret | 2,741 | 7 | C+ | D | A | C |
Corton has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
It has more crime per resident than most places its size: 69% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less.
GCSE results trail 82% of towns in England, and primary results trail 60% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £195,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £105,000, terraced houses £169,000, semi-detached houses £215,000 and detached houses £352,500. Household incomes are lower than in 86% of UK towns, so cost of living grades C.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · 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.