Photo: Derek Voller · CC BY-SA 2.0How North Yorkshire stacks up
On jobs and income, North Yorkshire is a county of two halves: 37% of town residents live in top-quarter towns such as Pannal and Upper Poppleton, and 43% in bottom-quarter ones such as Middlesbrough and Scarborough. Look town by town and North Yorkshire has a national leader: Dunnington for safety. Weighed together, that earns an A− (75 of 100), 17th among the areas.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
31st of 65B−53/100 About average for crime. Few places anywhere beat Dunnington, first of 2,138 towns for safety. By police.uk’s count, violent crime here comes to 37.5 offences per 1,000 residents a year. It leads its neighbours on safety, ahead of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
With theft, burglary and the rest counted too, 82 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 18th highest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
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. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Where recorded crime concentrates
At the quiet end sit Upper Poppleton (#5), Copmanthorpe (#6) and Pannal (#15) of 2,138 towns. The busiest quarter for recorded crime takes in Middlesbrough, Scarborough and Redcar. Its towns tell a different story from the county total: 23rd of 61 town by town, 23rd highest county-wide.
| 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% | |
| North Yorkshire | 34% | 37% |
Town centres and the people who live there
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 county-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
29th of 90B+69/100 Schools a notch above average. It leads its neighbours on schools, ahead of County Durham. In the tests every English pupil sits at eleven, 63% here reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (19th highest). 17% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 20% in a bottom-quarter one; Ingleby Barwick ranks highest.
Attainment 8 at GCSE: 46.6 (16th highest), weighed equally with the primary results.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
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. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Cost of living
54th of 98B−45/100 Middle of the road on cost. Its best town is Thornaby-on-Tees, #215 of 2,515, and 52% of town residents live in top-quarter towns. Land Registry sales put the typical home at £250,000, or 5.0 years of average household income, against 5.2 across England and Wales.
Typical sale price: £250,000 (13,465 sales, 38th highest).
Private rent £867 a month (39th lowest); Band D council tax £2,500 (18th highest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
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. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Health
27th of 98B+73/100 Healthy, but not everywhere. The gap between towns is wide: 28% of town residents live in bottom-quarter places like Middlesbrough. North Yorkshire ranks 22nd longest for healthy life expectancy, at 66.3 years. Among its neighbours it does best on health, with Cumbria second.
Life expectancy at birth: 81.1 years, 28th longest.
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
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. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Jobs & income
20th of 98A−80/100 Well off overall, unusually split. 37% of town residents live in top-quarter towns like Upper Poppleton and Ingleby Barwick, and 43% in bottom-quarter places such as Middlesbrough and Scarborough. Households take in £49,800 a year on average (43rd highest), and 2.8% of working-age adults claim out-of-work benefits. Pannal is among the ten best towns in the UK for incomes (#9).
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 2.8% of working-age adults (34th lowest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Measure: our Jobs & income grade: household income. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,156 graded towns. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Getting about
23rd of 98A−77/100 Easier to get about than most. 21% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 26% across England and Wales (33rd highest of 98 areas). Town by town it lands near the middle, with York its best at #39 of 2,515.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 27% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; 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. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Flood risk
64th of 87C27/100 Rivers and the sea are a real risk. About 3 in 100 homes in its towns face a real risk of flooding from rivers or the sea (10th highest). Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Marske-by-the-Sea ranks highest, at #83.
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 54 North Yorkshire towns.
Growth
49th of 98B−51/100 Average growth. ONS estimates put 1.20 million people here in 2024, +6.5% on 2011 (48th slowest). Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Sherburn in Elmet ranks highest, at #64.
Since the 2021 Census: +3.6%, 26th fastest.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 32 North Yorkshire towns. Covers 89% of residents of North Yorkshire’s graded towns.
How North Yorkshire compares to its neighbours
None of its neighbours (West Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, County Durham, Cumbria and Lancashire) matches it on safety, schools and health.
| North Yorkshire | West Yorkshire | East Riding of Yorkshire | County Durham | Cumbria | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | A− 7517th of 65 | C+ 3940th of 65 | C 3145th of 65 | C 3443rd of 65 | D 1158th of 65 |
| Safety | B− 5343rd official · 34% in top towns | D 664th official · 11% in top towns | C 3056th official · 30% in top towns | D− 362nd official · 6% in top towns | C− 1946th official · 15% in top towns |
| Schools | B+ 6919th official · 17% in top towns | B 6123rd official · 13% in top towns | C 2720th official · 2% in top towns | B 6211th official · 16% in top towns | D− 345th official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B− 4556th official · 52% in top towns | B− 5442nd official · 47% in top towns | B 5929th official · 41% in top towns | A− 805th official · 87% in top towns | C 3246th official · 0% in top towns |
| Health | B+ 7322nd official · 34% in top towns | C 3246th official · 13% in top towns | B− 4841st official · 28% in top towns | D 950th official · 5% in top towns | B 6130th official · 23% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | A− 8043rd official · 37% in top towns | C+ 4154th official · 13% in top towns | B− 4766th official · 19% in top towns | C+ 3580th official · 10% in top towns | C− 2086th official · 0% in top towns |
| Getting about | A− 7733rd official · 24% in top towns | A− 8031st official · 25% in top towns | B 5629th official · 0% in top towns | B− 4971st official · 1% in top towns | B+ 7233rd official · 8% in top towns |
| Flood risk | C 2746th official · 21% in top towns | C+ 4121st official · 13% in top towns | D 555th official · 10% in top towns | A 876th official · 50% in top towns | D− 349th official · 3% in top towns |
| Growth | B− 5151st official · 9% in top towns | B+ 7337th official · 37% in top towns | C+ 3947th official · 2% in top towns | C+ 3656th official · 5% in top towns | C 2978th official · 6% in top towns |
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.