Fewer journeys need a car: 29% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Harrogate grades A overall, better than 86% of UK towns, and ranks #9 of 54 in North Yorkshire. The local economy does well: the mean household earns £57,455 a year. Homes sell for a median £295,000, about 5.1 years of what households in the Harrogate council area earn. What counts against it is safety: police record 27.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, and 10.5 home and vehicle crimes. Against UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, it has more crime per resident than 5%. The rest of its grades are middling: B− for health and B for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income and life expectancy, ONS · claimants, DWP · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency.
ONS publishes one rent for all of North Yorkshire, so this town's Cost Grade uses house prices and council tax only.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Harrogate is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
SchoolsB+
Exam results at Harrogate’s schools top 67% of towns in England
Harrogate’s 17 primaries and five secondaries have 11,385 pupils between them. Below are three of its 24 schools, each with why it was picked. Secondary results at the town’s 5 secondary schools: an Attainment 8 score of 52.4, with 59% at grade 5 or above in English and maths.
Department for Education · GIAS, Key Stage 2 and GCSE resultsSee all 24 schools →
History
Old homes shape Harrogate: 29% were built before 1919, more than in both North Yorkshire’s towns and England’s towns
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
The top grade, Grade I, goes to 1 of them. Harrogate’s listed buildings include the Church of St Wilfrid, Grade I. Also worth knowing: of the town’s land, 25% lies in conservation areas, higher than both North Yorkshire’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (7%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
HousingCost of living grade B+
Harrogate is graded a B+ for cost of living grade
10% live in social housing, below both North Yorkshire’s towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%). The owner-occupied share of households is 67%. Private rents average £849 a month across the North Yorkshire council area.
£295Kmedian sale
Median sale price · Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
Harrogate£295K
Typical UK town£277K
By type
Median
Sales
Detached
£540,000
796
Semi-detached
£300,000
1,195
Terraced
£248,000
1,003
Flat or maisonette
£220,000
870
67%
of households own their home · England 61%
22%
rent privately · England 21%
£849
average private rent a month, North Yorkshire council area
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Safety
Among the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Harrogate records less crime per resident than 95% of them
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 4,408 offences in Harrogate and 1,110 cases of nuisance behaviour. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 16.5 reports per 1,000, above both North Yorkshire’s towns (10.3) and England’s towns (7.8). Violence and sexual offences accounted for 45% of recorded crime.
27.3violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a yearC+Safety Grade
Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 95% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: less crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
More crimeLess crime
Reports by type · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Violence & sexual1,984
Shoplifting725
Damage & arson374
Other theft337
Public order285
Burglary174
Vehicle crime158
Drugs136
Anti-social1,110
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.
27.3
violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
10.5
burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
16.5
anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 (not graded)
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.
Health
Just 4% of people in Harrogate say their health is bad or very bad, fewer than in both North Yorkshire’s towns and England’s towns
6 GP practices serve the town; 84% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 16% of people here had a disability, lower than both North Yorkshire’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (17%). The nearest A&E to Harrogate is Harrogate District Hospital, 0.8 miles away.
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Who lives here
Degrees are more common in Harrogate than in North Yorkshire’s towns or across England’s towns: 41% of adults
Line up the people of Harrogate by age and the one in the middle is 44.5. The under-15s are 15% of the population here. The 15-to-24 age group: 11%, below North Yorkshire’s towns (12%) and England’s towns (12%) alike.
44.5median age
HarrogateNorth YorkshireEngland
Ages · share of residents
21%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications14%
Apprenticeship5%
A levels or similar16%
Degree level41%
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
WomenEnglandMen
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
H. L. A. Hart: Robespierre 7, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Olly Alexander: Wojciech Pędzich, CC BY 4.0 · Andy O'Brien: Free-ers, CC BY 2.0 · Jim Carter: Minglemediatv, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Rachel Daly: James Boyes from UK, CC BY 2.0 · Luke Garbutt: Catherine Kõrtsmik, CC BY 2.0
Killinghall, Hampsthwaite, Spofforth and Pool-in-Wharfedale have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Questions about Harrogate
Is Harrogate safe?
Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades C+.
How many listed buildings are there in Harrogate?
Its Grade I building is Church of St Wilfrid.
Are schools in Harrogate good?
Primary results are closer to the middle, trailing 59%.
About Harrogate
Large town in North Yorkshire, England
Harrogate is a built-up area of 75,522 people, in the Harrogate 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
Population
75,522 (Census 2021)
Council
Harrogate
County
North Yorkshire
Region
Yorkshire and The Humber
Area
7.7 sq mi (20 km²)
ONS code
E63000601
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.
