Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The town, home to 17,500 people, lies in Shropshire, West Midlands.
The weak point is schools: primary results beat just over a fifth of towns in England; secondary results beat 5% of towns in England. Oswestry grades C+ overall, better than 38% of UK towns. That places it #13 of 19 in Shropshire. Jobs & income is weaker too: the mean household earns £44,942 a year. Its best grade is for cost of living — the median home sold for £205,000, 4.1 years of area income.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · income, ONS · claimants, DWP.
The 3 things Oswestry 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 Oswestry is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 137 buildings inside Oswestry’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 5 scheduled monuments.
22% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds a map from 1833.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Oswestry. Best known first.
CastleOswestry Castlein town
CastleWhittington Castle2.1 km outside town, to the northeast
Fort · English HeritageOld Oswestry300 m outside town, to the north
Heritage railwayCambrian Heritage Railways3.8 km outside town, to the southMuseumMuseumCambrian Railways Museumin townMuseumMuseumOswestry Town Museumin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Oswestry.
55% of pupils at the town’s 4 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Of its 5 schools, two are shown below, each with the reason. Between them, four primaries and one secondary teach 2,618 pupils in Oswestry.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodside Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 558 | C− |
| The Marches SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,346 | D |
Only one of the 20 towns in Shropshire costs less to buy into than Oswestry, whose median sale is £205,000. From September 2023 to August 2026, 667 homes sold inside the town’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £205,000. Private renters make up 22% of households, above Shropshire’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (21%) alike.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £300,000 | 218 |
| Semi-detached | £195,250 | 206 |
| Terraced | £168,000 | 193 |
| Flat or maisonette | £110,000 | 50 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 4 of them, Grade I 1. Oswestry’s listed buildings include Llwyd Mansion, 1-3 Cross Street, Grade I. 5 scheduled monuments lie here.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
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.
Nearly half of commuters travelled under 5 km to work. Working mainly from home: 15% of workers, lower than both Shropshire’s towns (24%) and England’s towns (31%). For every resident in work, Oswestry has 0.9 jobs.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Police recorded 1,258 crimes inside Oswestry’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 256 reports of anti-social behaviour. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 15.5 reports per 1,000, above Shropshire’s towns (8.1) and England’s towns (7.8) alike. Violence and sexual offences made up 53% 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.
Residents of Oswestry have a median age of 45.8. Nearly a quarter of residents are 65 or over, higher than both Shropshire’s towns (21%) and England’s towns (18%). Graduates make up 27% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Oswestry | Shropshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 21% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 18% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.6% | 5.9% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 27% | 29% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Shropshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The nearest A&E to Oswestry is Wrexham Maelor Hospital, 13 miles away. At the census, 20% of people here had a disability, near Shropshire’s towns (19%) and higher than England’s towns (17%). 3 GP practices serve the town; 85% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Oswestry | Shropshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 80% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.5% | 5.7% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 19% | 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.
137 listed buildings in Oswestry, 1 of them Grade I.
Oswestry Castle: motte and adjoining section of the town wall immediately north east of Christ Church: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Oswald: Photo: Daveyonthemove · CC BY-SA 3.0 · White Lion Inn: Photo: Eirian Evans · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Signal Box Approximately 80 Metres South of Former Oswestry Station: Photo: kitmasterbloke · CC BY 2.0
50 notable people were born in Oswestry.
Ian Hunter: Jim Summaria, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ian Woosnam: Ian_Woosnam_at_Royal_Troon.jpg: Steven Withers (stevie withers @ Flickr) derivative work: Austin512, CC BY 2.0 · Jesse Armstrong: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 · Edward Weston: Baldwin & Gleason Co., Public domain · Walford Davies: AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oswestry | 17,500 | — | C+ | A | C | C |
| Morda | 1,976 | 1.2 | — | B+ | A− | C+ |
| Whittington | 1,618 | 2 | — | B+ | B− | B |
| Gobowen | 3,046 | 2.6 | C− | A | C | C |
| Weston Rhyn | 1,381 | 4 | — | A | C+ | C+ |
| Pant | 1,173 | 4.6 | — | B− | A | A− |
| St Martins | 2,692 | 4.7 | B− | A | B | C+ |
| Chirk | 3,930 | 5.6 | C | B+ | C− | C |
Morda, Whittington, Weston Rhyn and Pant have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 3.2 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Llwyd Mansion, 1-3 Cross Street.
About the middle for its size: 54% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C.
Town in Shropshire, England
Oswestry is a built-up area of 17,500 people, in the Shropshire 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.