Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
It is a village of 1,522 residents in Oxfordshire, South East.
Where it does best is walkability — on the way to work, 25% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. It also does well on health (A−): life expectancy is 81.3 for men and 84.9 for women. Housing is expensive: a typical home costs £530,000 and rent runs £1,305 a month. Safety is weaker too — police record 30.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year, and 14.2 home and vehicle crimes. Set beside UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, its crime per resident is higher than in 87%. The rest of its grades are middling: B for jobs & income and C+ for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy and income, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Environment Agency. Burford is graded on each subject, but towns under 2,500 get no overall grade.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Burford is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Burford is graded on each subject, but towns under 2,500 get no overall grade.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Burford does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists them inside Burford’s built-up area.
39% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Burford.
The median resident of Burford is 56.3 years old. 12% are under 15, below both Oxfordshire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%). People aged 15 to 24 make up 8.4% of the town.
53% women, 47% men
About 89 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.
| Burford | Oxfordshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 12% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.4% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 17% | 27% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 37% | 18% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 15% | 14% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.3% | 4.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 39% | 42% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Oxfordshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
GCSE results at the one secondary school within 3 km: 49% of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 50.7. Both of the town’s schools appear below. Burford’s one primary and one secondary have 1,596 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burford Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 144 | D |
| Burford SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,452 | B+ |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Burford’s listed buildings include the Church of St John the Baptist, Grade I. Relative to its size, Burford keeps 1,629 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than both Oxfordshire’s towns (104) and England’s towns (39). It has 248 listed buildings on Historic England’s list: 2 Grade I, 33 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 43% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working from home was the norm for 43% of workers at the census, and 73% of commuters drove, higher than both Oxfordshire’s towns (69%) and England’s towns (70%). Households take home £66K a year before tax, on average. Of the commuters living in Burford, 20% work in the town itself.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
One GP practice serves the town; nearly nine in ten patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Disability touches 18% of Burford’s population. At the census, 4.3% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, above Oxfordshire’s towns (3.5%) but below England’s towns (5.2%).
| Census 2021 | Burford | Oxfordshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 86% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.3% | 3.5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 18% | 15% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Social housing holds 21% of households, above Oxfordshire’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. That is the middle of 100 standard sales inside Burford’s built-up area over three years, against £277,000 in the typical UK town.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £938,500 | 30 |
| Semi-detached | £485,000 | 17 |
| Terraced | £417,500 | 22 |
| Flat or maisonette | £475,000 | 31 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
94 crimes and 7 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what police recorded inside Burford’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026. Violence and sexual offences were 45% of the crimes. There were 6.1 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Oxfordshire’s towns (4.8) but below England’s towns (7.8).
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.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Burford. Best known first.
MuseumTolsey Museumin town
ZooCotswold Wildlife Park3 km outside town, to the southZooZooCrocodiles of the World3.7 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
6 notable people were born in Burford.
William Beechey: William Beechey, Public domain · Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland: Paul van Somer I, Public domain
Village in Oxfordshire, England
Burford is a built-up area of 1,522 people, in the West Oxfordshire 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burford | 1,522 | — | — | C | C | A− |
| Carterton | 17,951 | 3.5 | B+ | B+ | B | B |
| Minster Lovell | 1,270 | 3.8 | — | C | B+ | A |
| Milton-under-Wychwood and Shipton-under-Wychwood | 2,956 | 4 | A− | C | B+ | A |
| Upper Rissington | 1,999 | 5.6 | — | C | A− | A |
| Witney | 30,167 | 6.4 | B | B | C+ | B |
| Bampton | 2,994 | 6.6 | B | B− | B | A− |
| Ducklington | 1,585 | 7 | — | B− | B+ | A |
Minster Lovell, Upper Rissington and Ducklington have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 66.9 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include The Priory.
By type: flats £475,000, terraced houses £417,500, semi-detached houses £485,000 and detached houses £938,500.
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.