Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0How Powys stacks up
In Powys, no subject stands out: its best grade is a B. Its weak spots are slow growth (+1.5% since 2011) and tighter household budgets. That leaves it 61st of 65 graded areas, with a D (6 of 100).
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
56th of 65D14/100 Higher crime than most areas. Even its best town, Knighton, ranks #1,346 of 2,138. By police.uk’s count, violent crime here comes to 35.3 offences per 1,000 residents a year. The county-wide figure flatters its towns; villages and the countryside lift it.
All recorded crime (anti-social behaviour left out): 64 per 1,000 residents a year, 20th lowest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 7 Powys towns.
Crime gathers in the bigger places
Builth Wells leads its towns at #1,630 of 2,138, with Brecon and Ystradgynlais close behind. Newtown, Welshpool and Llandrindod Wells sit at the high-crime end of the ranking. The county-wide rate ranks 30th highest, but town by town it places 61st of 61.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| Powys | 0% | 55% |
What the two figures count
police.uk places every crime at a street or public place near where it happened, never an address, and we count it where that point falls. The county figure counts violent and sexual offences everywhere in Powys, including town centres, stations and shopping streets. Town grades count the crimes that touch residents where they live (violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage), so a town with a busy centre is not marked down for its shoplifting.
Schools
Not gradedNot graded: Wales publishes no school results. Wales publishes no school-by-school or county test results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties, like Welsh towns, have no Schools grade. Their overall grade weighs the other subjects.
Cost of living
65th of 98C34/100 Pricier than the typical area. At £249,000 for a typical home and £42,400 of household income, prices run 5.9 times income, the 15th highest ratio of 98 areas. 55% of town residents live in top-quarter towns such as Newtown and Welshpool, and almost none at the bottom. Homes look cheap in pounds (39th highest prices), but local incomes are lower still: 15th highest against income.
The middle home sold for £249,000 over the past year, 39th highest of the areas.
Private rent £621 a month (2nd lowest); Band D council tax £2,352 (42nd lowest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 7 Powys towns.
Health
40th of 98B60/100 A little healthier than average. Of a life expectancy of 81.6 years, 66.4 are expected in good health (20th longest among the areas). Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Newtown and Welshpool sit in the bottom quarter for the UK.
Total life expectancy is 81.6 years (17th longest).
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 7 Powys towns.
Jobs & income
85th of 98D13/100 Money is tighter here. Incomes and work tell different stories: 10th lowest household income, but the 28th lowest share claiming out-of-work benefits (2.7%). Households take in £42,400 a year on average (10th lowest), and 2.7% of working-age adults claim out-of-work benefits. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Brecon, #1,793.
Claimant rate: 2.7% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 28th lowest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Measure: our Jobs & income grade: household income. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,156 graded towns. 7 Powys towns.
Getting about
79th of 98C−20/100 Hard going without a car. 16% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 26% across England and Wales (23rd lowest of 98 areas). One town stands apart: Brecon, #152 in the UK, while nearly every other town sits lower.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 30% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 7 Powys towns.
Flood risk
71st of 87C−19/100 Rivers and the sea are a real risk. Powys ranks 13th highest of 55 areas with figures for flood risk: 2.4% of town homes are in harm’s way. 14% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 7% in a bottom-quarter one; Llandrindod Wells ranks highest.
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 7 Powys towns.
Growth
87th of 98D11/100 Growing slower than most areas. Since 2011 it has grown 1.5%, the 16th slowest change of 98 areas. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Llandrindod Wells comes closest, at #634 of 1,579.
Since the 2021 Census: +1.2%, 30th slowest.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 5 Powys towns. Covers 76% of residents of Powys’s graded towns.
How Powys compares to its neighbours
It sits mid-table among Dyfed, Gwynedd, Clwyd, Shropshire and Herefordshire on every subject.
| Powys | Dyfed | Gwynedd | Clwyd | Shropshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | D 661st of 65 | D− 065th of 65 | C− 2350th of 65 | C− 2052nd of 65 | C+ 4238th of 65 |
| Safety | D 1436th official · 0% in top towns | D 954th official · 10% in top towns | C 3434th official · 21% in top towns | C 3152nd official · 29% in top towns | B 5628th official · 26% in top towns |
| Schools | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | Not graded | C− 2425th official · 4% in top towns |
| Cost of living | C 3484th official · 55% in top towns | B− 4760th official · 63% in top towns | B 6346th official · 92% in top towns | C+ 4249th official · 35% in top towns | C+ 4463rd official · 59% in top towns |
| Health | B 6020th official · 14% in top towns | D 1141st official · 0% in top towns | B− 5123rd official · 12% in top towns | C+ 4137th official · 15% in top towns | B 5825th official · 18% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | D 1389th official · 0% in top towns | D 887th official · 0% in top towns | D 1167th official · 0% in top towns | C− 2268th official · 5% in top towns | C 3441st official · 3% in top towns |
| Getting about | C− 2076th official · 0% in top towns | B− 5286th official · 10% in top towns | B− 5470th official · 4% in top towns | B− 4780th official · 4% in top towns | C− 1878th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | C− 1943rd official · 14% in top towns | D 845th official · 6% in top towns | D− 052nd official · 0% in top towns | B 5827th official · 26% in top towns | B+ 7212th official · 22% in top towns |
| Growth | D 1183rd official · 0% in top towns | D 1381st official · 0% in top towns | D 989th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1579th official · 0% in top towns | A 8719th official · 54% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: 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.