Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 10,882 in Powys, Wales.
Newtown grades C− overall against UK towns: better than 23% of UK towns, and #4 of 7 in Powys. Its strongest subject is walkability (A): 27% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its weakest is safety (D−): 83.1 violent and sexual offences and 22.6 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, it has less crime per resident than 1%. The median home sold for £178,000 in the last three years, 4.2 times what households in the Powys council area earn in a year.
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 Newtown 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 Newtown is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Cadw lists 194 buildings inside Newtown’s built-up area, 3 of them Grade II*, and 2 scheduled monuments.
15% 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 1890.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newtown.
Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 16.7 reports per 1,000, higher than both Powys’ towns (8.4) and Wales’s towns (10.4). Newtown logged 1,546 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 164 complaints of anti-social conduct. Violence and sexual offences made up 54% of the total.
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.
Three of them are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Some 1,797 pupils attend Newtown’s five primaries and one secondary.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penygloddfa C.P. SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 270 | – |
| Newtown High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 896 | – |
| Ysgol Dafydd LlwydLargest Welsh-medium schoolPrimary | Primary | 211 | – |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 15% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
15% of workers worked mainly from home, lower than both Powys’ towns (24%) and Wales’s towns (24%). In 2026, 3.7% of 16 to 64s were claiming unemployment benefits. About 65% of its commuters stay in Newtown for work. The average household earns £38K a year before tax.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
One GP practice serves the town. Life expectancy here is 81.3 for women and 76.1 for men (2019–23). Asked at the census, 77% of residents of Newtown said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2021 | Newtown | Powys | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 78% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.7% | 6.5% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 23% | 22% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, 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.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 3 of them. Newtown has 178 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents, below Powys’ towns (268) but above Wales’s towns (18). 2 scheduled monuments lie here.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Nearly half of households are owner-occupiers. No town in Powys costs less to buy into than Newtown, at £178,000, the lowest of 7. Private rents average £621 a month across the Powys council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £260,000 | 114 |
| Semi-detached | £165,000 | 80 |
| Terraced | £145,000 | 111 |
| Flat or maisonette | £108,000 | 10 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Children under 15 make up 18%, above Powys’ towns (15%) and Wales’s towns (17%) alike. Those 65 and older account for just over a fifth of residents. The middle age in Newtown is 41.4. People aged 15 to 24 make up 12% of the town.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Newtown | Powys | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 15% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 9.5% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 21% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 27% | 26% |
| 65+ | 21% | 27% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 22% | 20% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.6% | 6.2% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 24% | 30% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · Powys and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Newtown. Best known first.
MuseumThe Robert Owen Museumin town
Castle · CadwDolforwyn Castle3.5 km outside town, to the northeastMuseumMuseumNewtown Textile Museumin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
194 listed buildings in Newtown.
Friends Meeting House (Cwrt Plas-yn-dre): Photo: RhedynCochion · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Railway Station: Photo: Rosser1954 · CC BY 4.0 · Newtown Old Church: Photo: Penny Mayes · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Long Bridge: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0
20 notable people were born in Newtown.
Robert Owen: William Henry Brooke, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newtown | 10,882 | — | C− | A− | D− | D |
| Llanidloes | 2,197 | 10 | — | A | C− | B− |
Llanidloes has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
194 on Cadw’s list, 3 of them Grade II*. That is 7.3 times the typical UK town for its size. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £178,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £108,000, terraced houses £145,000, semi-detached houses £165,000 and detached houses £260,000.
Town in Powys, Wales
Newtown is a built-up area of 10,882 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.