Photo: Colin Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0How Somerset stacks up
In Somerset, Backwell ranks #20 of 2,515 towns in the UK for health, the best showing of any town here. The good news is well-off households and getting about without a car; the bad news, homes that cost 5.7 times household income and real flood risk. That balance adds up to a B overall and 29th place among the UK’s areas.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
47th of 65C28/100 More recorded crime than most areas. Police recorded 39.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents over the past year (18th highest of 65 areas with police.uk figures). Town by town it lands near the middle, with Batheaston its best at #125 of 2,138.
All recorded crime (anti-social behaviour left out): 79 per 1,000 residents a year, 20th highest.
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. 49 Somerset towns.
A mixed picture, town by town
Saltford leads its towns at #126 of 2,138, with Backwell and Timsbury close behind. Weston-super-Mare, Taunton and Bridgwater sit at the high-crime end of the ranking. By population, 26% of its town residents are in top-quarter towns and 32% in bottom-quarter ones.
| 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% | |
| Somerset | 26% | 32% |
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
42nd of 90B−54/100 Average schools. At the end of primary school it ranks 10th lowest of 47 English counties, with 61% of pupils at the expected standard in all three Rs. Secondary schools pull ahead of primaries here: 10th lowest at eleven, but 23rd highest at GCSE. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Langport ranks highest, at #134.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 45.8, 23rd highest. 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. 49 Somerset towns.
Cost of living
88th of 98D10/100 Homes cost a lot of income here. Homes cost 5.7 times what the average household takes in a year, 9% above the England and Wales figure: a typical sale of £309,000 against income of £54,000. No town here reaches the top quarter for the UK; its best is Street, #1,176.
Typical sale price: £309,000 (11,982 sales, 19th highest).
Private rent £1,230 a month (19th highest); Band D council tax £2,510 (17th 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. 49 Somerset towns.
Health
14th of 98A87/100 Healthy, town after town. Almost no one here lives in a bottom-quarter town; Backwell and Batheaston are typical. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 67.8 years (men and women averaged), 2.6 years more than the England and Wales figure.
Total life expectancy is 82.4 years (5th 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. 49 Somerset towns.
Jobs & income
17th of 98A−84/100 Incomes above most areas. The average household income is £54,000 a year. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Backwell its best at #22 of 2,156.
Claimant rate: 2.4% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 16th 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. 49 Somerset towns.
Getting about
27th of 98B+73/100 Less car-bound than most areas. 20% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 26% across England and Wales (40th highest of 98 areas). Town by town it lands near the middle, with Bath its best at #36 of 2,515.
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. 49 Somerset towns.
Flood risk
63rd of 87C28/100 More flood risk than most areas. Somerset ranks 14th highest of 55 areas with figures for flood risk: 2.3% of town homes are in harm’s way. 19% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 47% in a bottom-quarter one; Locking 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. 49 Somerset towns.
Growth
31st of 98B+69/100 Growing a bit faster than average. Locking leads its towns at #22 of 1,579; 20% of town residents live in top-quarter towns. Since 2011 it has grown 11.3%, the 20th fastest change of 98 areas.
Since the 2021 Census: +3.1%, 42nd 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. 42 Somerset towns.
How Somerset compares to its neighbours
It sits mid-table among Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Bristol and Gloucestershire on every subject.
| Somerset | Devon | Dorset | Wiltshire | Bristol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B 5629th of 65 | C+ 4437th of 65 | B+ 7318th of 65 | A− 8312th of 65 | C− 1754th of 65 |
| Safety | C 2848th official · 26% in top towns | C+ 3644th official · 26% in top towns | A 8611th official · 61% in top towns | A− 8014th official · 45% in top towns | D− 065th official |
| Schools | B− 5438th official · 13% in top towns | B− 5325th official · 5% in top towns | A− 7529th official · 33% in top towns | C+ 4340th official · 11% in top towns | C+ 3637th official |
| Cost of living | D 1082nd official · 0% in top towns | D 1279th official · 0% in top towns | D 593rd official · 0% in top towns | C+ 3565th official · 30% in top towns | D− 492nd official |
| Health | A 8710th official · 49% in top towns | B+ 7120th official · 22% in top towns | A− 8212th official · 38% in top towns | A 868th official · 39% in top towns | C 2937th official |
| Jobs & income | A− 8424th official · 28% in top towns | B+ 6642nd official · 16% in top towns | B 6232nd official · 12% in top towns | B+ 7316th official · 17% in top towns | B− 5320th official |
| Getting about | B+ 7340th official · 15% in top towns | A− 7925th official · 16% in top towns | B+ 7037th official · 3% in top towns | B− 4643rd official · 0% in top towns | A+ 974th official |
| Flood risk | C 2842nd official · 19% in top towns | D− 248th official · 2% in top towns | B− 4915th official · 13% in top towns | B+ 6618th official · 23% in top towns | B− 5128th official |
| Growth | B+ 6920th official · 20% in top towns | A− 7526th official · 25% in top towns | B− 5445th official · 11% in top towns | A 8914th official · 50% in top towns | A 949th 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.