Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town in Oxfordshire, South East, home to 8,455 people.
Wallingford’s best grade is for walkability — 27% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. It also does well on jobs & income — the mean household earns £66,348 a year. Buying the median home, at £425,000, takes 6.1 years of household income in the South Oxfordshire council area. Hazard risk is higher than most (C): 1.2% of homes face a high or medium risk of river or sea flooding. The overall grade comes out at A−, #14 of 38 in Oxfordshire. On that grade it does better than 84% of UK towns.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Environment Agency · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Wallingford 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 Wallingford is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 138 buildings inside Wallingford’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade I, and 3 scheduled monuments.
16% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Wallingford, Connecticut, is named after Wallingford.
USUS editionWallingford, Connecticut, settled in 1667, takes its name from this town.
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Wallingford.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 40% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For 38% of commuters, work was under 5 km away. Of the commuters living in Wallingford, 26% work in the town itself. There are 1.2 jobs in Wallingford for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Two of its 3 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Attainment 8 at the one secondary school within 3 km averages 48.9, and 50% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. Wallingford’s two primaries and one secondary have 1,941 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fir Tree Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 228 | B+ |
| Wallingford SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,507 | B |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
At the top of the list, 2 are Grade I and 10 Grade II*. Wallingford’s listed buildings include Remains of St Nicholas's College, Grade I. Conservation areas cover 21% of the town’s land, above both Oxfordshire’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (7%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Just over a fifth of residents are 65 or over, higher than both Oxfordshire’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (18%). Line up the people of Wallingford by age and the one in the middle is 44.4. Degrees are held by 43% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Wallingford | Oxfordshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.2% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 27% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 25% | 25% |
| 65+ | 22% | 18% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 13% | 14% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.8% | 4.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 43% | 42% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Oxfordshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
One GP practice serves the town; 92% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Wallingford is John Radcliffe Hospital, 11.9 miles away. At the census, 4.2% of people here described their health as bad or very bad.
| Census 2021 | Wallingford | Oxfordshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 86% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.2% | 3.5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 15% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
411 standard sales inside Wallingford’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £425,000. Social housing holds 18% of households, higher than Oxfordshire’s towns (15%) and near England’s towns (18%). Households that own their home make up 65%.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £665,000 | 83 |
| Semi-detached | £450,000 | 109 |
| Terraced | £365,000 | 125 |
| Flat or maisonette | £253,750 | 94 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Violence and sexual offences made up 47% of the total. The 12 months to August 2026 brought 407 recorded crimes inside Wallingford’s built-up area, and 58 reports of anti-social behaviour. Violent crime ran at 24.6 per 1,000 residents a year, higher than both Oxfordshire’s towns (18.6) and England’s towns (22).
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 Wallingford. Best known first.
MuseumWallingford Museumin town
Heritage railwayCholsey and Wallingford Railwayin town
CastleWallingford Castle100 m outside town, to the east
Historic houseBraziers Park4.8 km outside town, to the southeast
MuseumDorchester Abbey Museum3.9 km outside town, to the northwestMuseumMuseumWallingford Phone Box Museumin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
138 listed buildings in Wallingford, 2 of them Grade I.
Wallingford Castle: Photo: Pitou250 · Public domain · Remains of St Nicholas's College: Photo: Sciencebloke · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Angier's Almshouses: Photo: Bill Nicholls · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Cross Keys Public House: Photo: Stuart Logan · CC BY-SA 2.0
19 notable people were born in Wallingford.
Jonathan Bailey: LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Katty Kay: Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wallingford | 8,455 | — | A− | B− | B− | B+ |
| Crowmarsh Gifford | 1,329 | 1 | — | C+ | B− | A |
| Brightwell-cum-Sotwell | 1,244 | 1.6 | — | C | A− | A− |
| Benson | 5,236 | 1.7 | A | C+ | A− | A+ |
| Cholsey | 3,776 | 2.2 | A | B− | B | A |
| Berinsfield | 2,773 | 4.7 | C+ | A− | C+ | C |
| Blewbury | 1,708 | 4.9 | — | C+ | A | A− |
| Didcot | 34,600 | 5 | A | B+ | C+ | B |
Crowmarsh Gifford, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell and Blewbury have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 6.7 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Remains of St Nicholas's College. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
Band D council tax in Wallingford is £2,702 for 2026–27, more than in 96% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire, plus the parish or town council). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £425,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £253,750, terraced houses £365,000, semi-detached houses £450,000 and detached houses £665,000. Household incomes are higher than in 83% of UK towns, so cost of living still grades B−.
Town in Oxfordshire, England
Wallingford is a built-up area of 8,455 people, in the South 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.