Photo: Graham Robson · CC BY-SA 2.0How Northumberland stacks up
In Northumberland, town by town, 58% of residents live in one of the lowest-flood-risk towns in the UK (the top quarter), with almost none at the other end. It struggles most with slow growth (+4.8% since 2011). Its overall score of 52 ranks 32nd, a B−.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
30th of 65B55/100 A little safer than average. The county total looks better than its towns do. At 28.5 violent offences per 1,000 residents, Northumberland sits 16th lowest among the areas. Among its neighbours it does best on safety, with Tyne and Wear second.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 69 per 1,000 a year (26th lowest).
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. 20 Northumberland towns.
Quiet towns, busier ones
Its safest towns are Corbridge (#25), Ponteland (#409) and Seaton Sluice (#571), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Blyth and Ashington, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime. The county-wide rate ranks 16th lowest, but town by town it places 48th of 61.
| 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% | |
| Northumberland | 18% | 30% |
Where crimes are counted
police.uk places every crime at a street or public place near where it happened, never an address, and we count it where that point falls. The county figure counts violent and sexual offences everywhere in Northumberland, including town centres, stations and shopping streets. Town grades count the crimes that touch residents where they live (violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage), so a town with a busy centre is not marked down for its shoplifting.
Schools
61st of 90C33/100 Schools a notch below average. Its towns beat the county-wide figure. 61% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of primary school, against 64% across England (10th lowest). 12% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 35% in a bottom-quarter one; Haltwhistle ranks highest.
At GCSE, pupils average 43.6 on Attainment 8 (6th lowest); the grade counts it as much as 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. 19 Northumberland towns.
Cost of living
38th of 98B62/100 A little more affordable than average. Land Registry sales put the typical home at £210,000, or 4.5 years of average household income, against 5.2 across England and Wales. Nearly every town does well here, Hadston and Ashington among them.
Typical sale price: £210,000 (4,006 sales, 40th lowest).
Private rent £695 a month (7th lowest); Band D council tax £2,597 (7th 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. 20 Northumberland towns.
Health
50th of 98B−49/100 About average health. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 64.8 years (men and women averaged). 19% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 45% in a bottom-quarter one; Ponteland ranks highest.
Total life expectancy is 81.0 years (27th shortest).
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. 20 Northumberland towns.
Jobs & income
62nd of 98C+37/100 Incomes a notch below average. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Blyth and Ashington sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. The average household income is £46,700 a year, 16% below the England and Wales figure.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 2.9% of working-age adults (38th 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. 20 Northumberland towns.
Getting about
41st of 98B59/100 A bit less car-bound than most. Northumberland ranks 33rd lowest for getting to work without a car: 17% of commuters walk, cycle or ride. 5% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 41% in a bottom-quarter one; Hexham ranks highest.
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. 20 Northumberland towns.
Flood risk
9th of 87A91/100 Low flood risk, town after town. 0.4% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, against 1.6% across England and Wales (6th lowest). Town after town lands in the top quarter for the UK: 58% of residents live in one.
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. 20 Northumberland towns.
Growth
75th of 98C−24/100 Population barely moving. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Blyth comes closest, at #538 of 1,579. Since 2011 it has grown 4.8%, the 38th slowest change of 98 areas. Every neighbour scores higher, Tyne and Wear, Cumbria and County Durham among them.
Since the 2021 Census: +3.1%, 42nd 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. 14 Northumberland towns. Covers 80% of residents of Northumberland’s graded towns.
How Northumberland compares to its neighbours
Next to Tyne and Wear, Cumbria, County Durham and Scottish Borders, it comes out ahead on safety and behind on growth.
| Northumberland | Tyne and Wear | Cumbria | County Durham | Scottish Borders | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B− 5232nd of 65 | C+ 4139th of 65 | D 1158th of 65 | C 3443rd of 65 | No overall grade |
| Safety | B 5516th official · 18% in top towns | C 2539th official · 14% in top towns | C− 1946th official · 15% in top towns | D− 362nd official · 6% in top towns | Not graded |
| Schools | C 3338th official · 12% in top towns | B 584th official · 10% in top towns | D− 345th official · 0% in top towns | B 6211th official · 16% in top towns | B 6315th official · 20% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B 6240th official · 78% in top towns | B 6416th official · 39% in top towns | C 3246th official · 0% in top towns | A− 805th official · 87% in top towns | A− 7832nd official · 100% in top towns |
| Health | B− 4934th official · 19% in top towns | D 1052nd official · 6% in top towns | B 6130th official · 23% in top towns | D 950th official · 5% in top towns | B+ 709th official · 15% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C+ 3757th official · 4% in top towns | C− 1665th official · 6% in top towns | C− 2086th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 3580th official · 10% in top towns | C+ 4373rd official |
| Getting about | B 5966th official · 5% in top towns | A 8810th official · 26% in top towns | B+ 7233rd official · 8% in top towns | B− 4971st official · 1% in top towns | B− 4643rd official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | A 916th official · 58% in top towns | A+ 981st official · 58% in top towns | D− 349th official · 3% in top towns | A 876th official · 50% in top towns | C− 2132nd official · 22% in top towns |
| Growth | C− 2461st official · 0% in top towns | C+ 4150th official · 4% in top towns | C 2978th official · 6% in top towns | C+ 3656th official · 5% in top towns | C 3072nd official |
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.