Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 17,951 people live in this town, in Oxfordshire, South East. Over-65s are only 13% of the population.
A solid town with one catch. Carterton grades B+ overall, better than 69% of UK towns. Its strongest is jobs & income: the mean household earns £69,389 a year. Pupils here do less well than most: primary results beat 15% of towns in England; secondary results beat 1% of towns in England. The median home sold for £325,000, 5 times what households in the West Oxfordshire council area earn in a year. Its remaining grades are unremarkable: B for safety, B for health and B for hazard risk.
Figures: income and life expectancy, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · flood risk, Environment Agency. Carterton is a military garrison town: most residents serve or work for the armed forces and live in service housing, so it keeps its grades but isn’t ranked against other towns.
The 3 things Carterton does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Carterton is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 11 buildings inside Carterton’s built-up area.
2% 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 Carterton.
Between them, six primaries and one secondary teach 2,326 pupils in Carterton. Below are two of its 7 schools, each with why it was picked. GCSE results at the one secondary school within 3 km: nearly a fifth of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 34.6.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St John the Evangelist CofE VA Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 452 | B |
| Carterton Community CollegeLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 774 | D− |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Listed buildings per head: 6 for every 10,000 residents of Carterton. Homes from before 1919 make up 2% of the total, below both Oxfordshire’s towns (14%) and England’s towns (16%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 24% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
About 39% of its commuters stay in Carterton for work. At the census, 19% went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport, below Oxfordshire’s towns (29%) and England’s towns (27%) alike. For every resident in work, Carterton has 0.5 jobs.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The social rented sector houses 11% of households. The median sale, £325,000, comes from 740 standard sales inside Carterton’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. 58% of households own their home, about level with England’s towns (61%) and below Oxfordshire’s towns (63%).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £455,000 | 239 |
| Semi-detached | £325,000 | 232 |
| Terraced | £294,000 | 178 |
| Flat or maisonette | £180,000 | 91 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
One GP practice serves the town; 78% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 13% of residents have a disability, lower than both Oxfordshire’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (17%). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 3% of the town. The nearest A&E to Carterton is John Radcliffe Hospital, 15.9 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Carterton | Oxfordshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 87% | 86% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3% | 3.5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
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.
53% of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences. Burglary and damage come to 6.2 per 1,000 residents a year. Reported offences in Carterton came to 769 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 109.
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.
Young adults of 15 to 24 are 11% of residents, below Oxfordshire’s towns (13%) and close to England’s towns (12%). One measure of family life: 19% of residents are under 15. Ages in Carterton split evenly at 35.4: half are older, half younger.
48% women, 52% men
About 108 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Carterton is a garrison town: service personnel living in barracks count as residents.
| Carterton | Oxfordshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 33% | 27% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 23% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 13% | 18% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 14% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6% | 4.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 26% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 28% | 42% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Oxfordshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Carterton. Best known first.
ZooCotswold Wildlife Park3.3 km outside town, to the west
MuseumSwinford Museum3.5 km outside town, to the southwest
MuseumTolsey Museum4.3 km outside town, to the northwestZooZooCrocodiles of the World500 m outside town, to the northCastleCastle · English HeritageMinster Lovell Hall and Dovecot4.1 km outside town, to the northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carterton | 17,951 | — | B+ | B+ | B | B |
| Minster Lovell | 1,270 | 2.7 | — | C | B+ | A |
| Bampton | 2,994 | 3.1 | B | B− | B | A− |
| Burford | 1,522 | 3.5 | — | C | C | A− |
| Ducklington | 1,585 | 4.5 | — | B− | B+ | A |
| Aston | 1,174 | 4.5 | — | C+ | A− | A− |
| Witney | 30,167 | 4.6 | B | B | C+ | B |
| Lechlade-on-Thames | 2,208 | 6.2 | — | C− | B− | A− |
Minster Lovell, Burford, Ducklington, Aston and Lechlade-on-Thames have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Town in Oxfordshire, England
Carterton is a built-up area of 17,951 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
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.