Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The town, home to 2,911 people, lies in Powys, Wales.
Knighton’s weakest subject is jobs & income: the mean household earns £40,873 a year. Walkability is its strong suit: a fifth of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Buying the median home, at £240,000, takes 5.7 years of household income in the Powys council area. Put together, the subjects come to a C overall, better than 32% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #1 of 7 in Powys.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
Dyfed Powys Police published 32 of the 36 months; rates are per year over the months published. This town's Health Grade uses ONS's small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for 2019 to 2023, and two Census 2021 measures, bad health and disability, adjusted for age. English towns' grades also use OHID's small-area early deaths, hospital admissions and child obesity, which OHID publishes for England only.
The 3 things Knighton does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Wales), ordered by how far Knighton is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists 78 buildings inside Knighton’s built-up area, and 4 scheduled monuments.
32% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 4 old photos and postcards going back to 1910.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Knighton.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Every one of Knighton’s 78 listed buildings sits at Grade II, the most common listing. For its size, Knighton has 268 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, above both Powys’ towns (224) and Wales’s towns (18). This Powys town has 4 scheduled monuments.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
It is listed below. The town’s primary school has 168 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knighton C.I.W. SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 168 | – |
26% of adults hold a degree, below both Powys’ towns (30%) and Wales’s towns (31%). The share of residents under 15 is 13%. Half of Knighton is older than 51.1, half younger. Young adults of 15 to 24 account for a tenth of the town.
51% women, 49% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Knighton | Powys | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 9.5% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 19% | 21% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 30% | 27% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 8.4% | 6.2% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 19% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 26% | 30% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Powys and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 21% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
3.7% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026, above Powys’ towns (2.9%) and Wales’s towns (3%) alike. Of the commuters living in Knighton, 34% work in the town itself. This Powys town counts 0.8 jobs per working resident.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Violence comes to 31.4 per 1,000 residents a year. A year of reports to August 2026 adds up to 155 offences in Knighton and 21 cases of nuisance behaviour. Also worth knowing: there were 23 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Powys’ towns (8.4) and Wales’s towns (10.4) alike. 55% of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences.
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.
15% live in social housing, below Powys’ towns (20%) and Wales’s towns (18%) alike. Private rents average £621 a month across the Powys council area. The £240,000 median rests on 95 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £288,750 | 44 |
| Semi-detached | £222,000 | 19 |
| Terraced | £162,250 | 30 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Nearly a fifth of residents have a disability, below both Powys’ towns (22%) and Wales’s towns (22%). One GP practice serves the town. Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 5.5% of the town.
| Census 2021 | Knighton | Powys | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 79% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.5% | 6.5% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 22% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy among them.
78 listed buildings in Knighton.
Bryn y Castell: Photo: Bill Boaden · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Knighton Railway Station: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Green Price Almshouses: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Norton Arms Hotel: Photo: Stuart Logan · CC BY-SA 2.0
8 notable people were born in Knighton.
Chaz Davies: David Pettit, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Clement Edwards: Anhysbys, Public domain · Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland: Louise Gardiner, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knighton | 2,911 | — | C | B | C | B− |
| Presteigne | 1,929 | 5.3 | — | B− | C− | B− |
| Kington | 2,423 | 9.6 | — | B+ | C | C+ |
| Bishop's Castle | 1,847 | 10 | — | B− | C+ | B− |
| Craven Arms | 2,563 | 11 | C+ | A− | C− | B− |
Presteigne, Kington and Bishop's Castle have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
78 on Cadw’s list. That is 11 times the typical UK town for its size.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on Natural Resources Wales’s flood risk service.
It has more crime per resident than most places its size: 76% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people report less.
Town in Powys, Wales
Knighton is a built-up area of 2,911 people, in the Powys 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) · Cadw listed buildings, scheduled monuments and registered historic parks and gardens via DataMapWales, 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.