Photo: TCExplorer · CC BY-SA 2.0How Shropshire stacks up
In Shropshire, the trade-off is clear: few homes in harm’s way from flooding on one side, a reliance on the car (only 15% of commuters walk, cycle or ride) and weaker school results on the other. Weighed together, that earns a C+ (42 of 100), 38th among the areas. Its standout town is Bayston Hill, #18 in the UK for safety.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
29th of 65B56/100 Somewhat below-average crime. Shropshire records 33.0 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 people a year, against 37.9 across England and Wales. 26% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, almost none in a bottom-quarter one; Bayston Hill ranks highest.
All recorded crime (anti-social behaviour left out): 62 per 1,000 residents a year, 17th 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. 19 Shropshire towns.
Hardly any high-crime towns
Church Stretton leads its towns at #341 of 2,138, with Cleobury Mortimer and St Martins close behind.
| 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% | |
| Shropshire | 26% | 0% |
What the two figures count
Each crime on police.uk is pinned to a nearby street or public place, not an address; both figures count crimes where those points fall. The county-wide rate takes in town centres, stations and shopping streets, where many offences are recorded but few people live. Our town grades leave shop theft and other town-centre crime out and count violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage, the crimes that reach people at home.
Schools
69th of 90C−24/100 Pupils score below most of England. Primary schools do better than secondaries here: 23rd lowest at eleven, 2nd lowest at GCSE. In the tests every English pupil sits at eleven, 62% here reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (23rd lowest). Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Telford and Oswestry sit in the bottom quarter for the UK.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 42.5, 2nd lowest. The grade weighs primary and GCSE results equally.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 19 Shropshire towns.
Cost of living
55th of 98C+44/100 A bit expensive for what people earn. Town after town lands in the top quarter for the UK: 59% of residents live in one. A typical home sold for £260,000 over the past year, 5.2 times the average household’s income (36th highest of 98 areas).
The middle home sold for £260,000 over the past year, 37th highest of the areas.
Private rent £837 a month (34th lowest); Band D council tax £2,429 (34th highest). 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. 19 Shropshire towns.
Health
42nd of 98B58/100 A little healthier than average. 18% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, almost none in a bottom-quarter one; Church Stretton ranks highest. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 66.0 years (men and women averaged), 0.8 years more than the England and Wales figure.
Total life expectancy is 81.3 years (25th 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. 19 Shropshire towns.
Jobs & income
65th of 98C34/100 Incomes a notch below average. Households take in £49,900 a year on average (41st highest), and 3.0% of working-age adults claim out-of-work benefits. Top-quarter towns are rare here; Shifnal comes closest at #662. The county total looks better than its towns do.
Claimant rate: 3.0% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 43rd 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. 19 Shropshire towns.
Getting about
81st of 98C−18/100 Hard going without a car. Shropshire ranks 21st lowest for getting to work without a car: 15% of commuters walk, cycle or ride. Even its best town, Ludlow, ranks #295 of 2,515.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 26% 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. 19 Shropshire towns.
Flood risk
25th of 87B+72/100 Fairly sheltered from flooding. 0.9% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, against 1.6% across England and Wales (12th lowest). Town by town it lands near the middle, with St Martins its best at #196 of 2,452.
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. 19 Shropshire towns.
Growth
14th of 98A87/100 Growing faster than most. The population grew 11.5% between 2011 and 2024, to 528,407, against 10.0% across England and Wales (19th fastest). Among its neighbours it does best on growth, with Cheshire second. Its best town is Shifnal, #45 of 1,579, and 54% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +3.5% (31st fastest).
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. 12 Shropshire towns. Covers 94% of residents of Shropshire’s graded towns.
How Shropshire compares to its neighbours
Against Cheshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Powys, Shropshire leads on growth.
| Shropshire | Cheshire | Staffordshire | Worcestershire | Herefordshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C+ 4238th of 65 | B 6424th of 65 | C 2847th of 65 | C+ 3841st of 65 | C− 2251st of 65 |
| Safety | B 5628th official · 26% in top towns | C+ 4237th official · 26% in top towns | C− 1653rd official · 22% in top towns | B+ 6727th official · 39% in top towns | B 5813th official · 20% in top towns |
| Schools | C− 2425th official · 4% in top towns | A− 816th official · 30% in top towns | C+ 4212th official · 7% in top towns | C− 1834th official · 2% in top towns | C 3410th official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | C+ 4463rd official · 59% in top towns | C 3368th official · 28% in top towns | B− 4652nd official · 45% in top towns | C 2775th official · 25% in top towns | D 985th official · 0% in top towns |
| Health | B 5825th official · 18% in top towns | A− 7519th official · 29% in top towns | C+ 4236th official · 14% in top towns | B+ 7417th official · 28% in top towns | B 6215th official · 13% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C 3441st official · 3% in top towns | B+ 6936th official · 20% in top towns | C 3050th official · 5% in top towns | B− 4528th official · 6% in top towns | C 3245th official · 0% in top towns |
| Getting about | C− 1878th official · 0% in top towns | C 2668th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1580th official · 0% in top towns | C− 1679th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 4149th official · 0% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B+ 7212th official · 22% in top towns | A− 7820th official · 40% in top towns | A 934th official · 55% in top towns | C 2625th official · 3% in top towns | D 1047th official · 13% in top towns |
| Growth | A 8719th official · 54% in top towns | B+ 6623rd official · 15% in top towns | B 5645th official · 12% in top towns | B 6432nd official · 17% in top towns | C 3467th official |
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.