School results trail most towns: secondary results beat 12% of towns in England. Homes are affordable (A): a typical home costs £170,000 and rent runs £695 a month. Overall, that makes a C, good for #14 of 20 in Northumberland. Nationally, it does better than 30% of UK towns. It also trails on jobs & income: mean household income £39,493; 3.1% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · income, ONS · claimants, DWP.
Northumbria Police published 34 of the 36 months; rates are per year over the months published.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Berwick-upon-Tweed is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
History
291 listed buildings, 14 of them Grade I
291listed buildingsA+History Grade
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Berwick-upon-Tweed has 221 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, higher than both Northumberland’s towns (45) and England’s towns (39). The pre-1919 share of homes is 24%. It has 4 scheduled monuments.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
SchoolsD
School results in Berwick-upon-Tweed are weaker than in 92% of towns in England
DSchool Grade
Of its 8 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Secondary results at the one secondary school within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 39.3, with 33% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Berwick-upon-Tweed’s six primaries and one secondary have 1,364 pupils between them.
Department for Education · GIAS, Key Stage 2 and GCSE resultsSee all 8 schools →
Work & commuteJobs & income grade D
More commuters in Berwick-upon-Tweed work nearby than in Northumberland’s towns or England’s towns: 62% travel under 5 km
27%walk, cycle or ride
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 16% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Driving is how 71% of commuters got to work at the census. Working mainly from home: 16% of workers, below Northumberland’s towns (25%) and England’s towns (31%) alike. 27% of commuters went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport at the census. About just over three fifths of its commuters stay in Berwick-upon-Tweed for work.
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Health
Berwick-upon-Tweed is 50.7 miles from the nearest A&E
77%good or very good healthC−Health Grade
3 GP practices serve the town; 68% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Asked at the census, 77% of residents of Berwick-upon-Tweed said they were in good or very good health. Women here live to 82 on average and men to 78 (2019–23). Also worth knowing: just over a fifth of residents have a disability, close to Northumberland’s towns (22%) and above England’s towns (17%).
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Young towns look healthier on these answers, which aren’t adjusted for age; the Health Grade uses measures that are, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Safety
Violent crime runs high in Berwick-upon-Tweed: 32.2 per 1,000 residents a year, above Northumberland’s towns and England’s towns
32.2violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a yearCSafety Grade
Burglary and damage came to 12.4 per 1,000 residents a year, higher than both Northumberland’s towns (10.1) and England’s towns (9.4). Police figures for Berwick-upon-Tweed’s built-up area: 812 crimes and 235 anti-social behaviour reports in the 12 months to August 2026. Violence and sexual offences accounted for 42% of recorded crime.
Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 51% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: about the middle for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
More crimeLess crime
Reports by type · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Violence & sexual337
Damage & arson130
Shoplifting96
Public order74
Other crime46
Other theft40
Burglary27
Drugs19
Anti-social235
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.
32.2
violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
12.4
burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026
18.4
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.
Who lives here
Berwick-upon-Tweed skews older, with 27% of residents 65 or over, more than in both Northumberland’s towns and England’s towns
49median age
The 15-to-24 age group: 9%, close to Northumberland’s towns (9.4%) and below England’s towns (12%). Line up the people of Berwick-upon-Tweed by age and the one in the middle is 49. Children under 15 make up 16% of residents.
Berwick-upon-TweedNorthumberlandEngland
Ages · share of residents
27%
Under 1515–2425–4445–6465+
Qualifications · residents 16 and older
No qualifications23%
Apprenticeship9%
A levels or similar16%
Degree level24%
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
WomenEnglandMen
About 91 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
Lucy Bronze: James Boyes from UK, CC BY 2.0 · James Cockburn: William James Topley, Public domain · John Cooper: created for Multinational Force-Iraq, Public domain · Maggie Moffat: Alfred Ellis, Public domain · Guy Learmonth: Graham Campbell from Glasgow, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0
About Berwick-upon-Tweed
Town in Northumberland, England
Berwick-upon-Tweed is a built-up area of 13,181 people, in the Northumberland 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.
How many listed buildings are there in Berwick-upon-Tweed?
That is 9.1 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Berwick Castle (Fragments, Including Towers and Walls and Steps).
Are schools in Berwick-upon-Tweed good?
GCSE results trail 88% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8).
Is Berwick-upon-Tweed expensive to live in?
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £170,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £120,000, terraced houses £156,250, semi-detached houses £170,000 and detached houses £317,000.
Does Berwick-upon-Tweed flood?
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
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.
