Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 28,391 people live in this large town, in South Glamorgan, Wales.
Walkability is its strong suit: on the way to work, 23% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Penarth’s overall grade of B− puts it better than 52% of UK towns, #4 of 9 in South Glamorgan. Prices are high against local incomes: the median home sold for £310,000, 6.2 years of area income. Hazard risk is weaker too — 1.3% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Elsewhere it is close to typical: C+ for safety, B− for health and B for jobs & income.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Natural Resources Wales · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · health, Census 2021 (the grade adjusts for age) · income, ONS · claimants, DWP.
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.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Wales), ordered by how far Penarth is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Penarth does most differently from other towns.
Cadw lists 57 buildings inside Penarth’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 3 scheduled monuments.
25% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 5 old photos and postcards going back to 1890.
57 listed buildings in Penarth, 1 of them Grade I.
St Augustine's Parish Church: Photo: Gareth James · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Pillar-Cross in Llandough Churchyard: Photo: Ben Meyrick · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Alexandra Park: Photo: John Lord · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Remains of Cwrt-y-vil Grange (generally known as Cwrt-y-Vil Castle): Photo: No Swan So Fine · CC BY-SA 4.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Penarth.
People 65 and over make up just over a fifth of the town. Young adults of 15 to 24 are one in ten residents, below South Glamorgan’s towns (16%) and Wales’s towns (12%) alike. The median resident of Penarth is 42.9 years old.
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across Wales, 51% of residents are women.
| Penarth | South Glamorgan | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| 15–24 | 9.6% | 16% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 27% | 25% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 23% | 26% |
| 65+ | 21% | 16% | 21% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 16% | 20% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.4% | 4.3% | 5.6% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 19% | 17% |
| Degree level | 49% | 39% | 31% |
ONS Census 2021 · South Glamorgan and Wales: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Between them, seven primaries and two secondaries teach 5,533 pupils in Penarth. Three of them are below, each with the reason it’s listed.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evenlode C.P. SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 501 | – |
| Stanwell SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,923 | – |
| Ysgol Pen Y GarthLargest Welsh-medium schoolPrimary | Primary | 320 | – |
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 42% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: 42% of workers, above South Glamorgan’s towns (35%) and Wales’s towns (24%) alike. The car carried 74% of commuters at the census. Of the commuters living in Penarth, 26% work in the town itself. Also worth knowing: half of commuters travelled under 5 km to work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Private renters make up 22% of households, near South Glamorgan’s towns (22%) and higher than Wales’s towns (17%). 10% of households rent from a council or housing body. Households that own their home make up 68%.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £575,000 | 165 |
| Semi-detached | £380,000 | 292 |
| Terraced | £320,000 | 357 |
| Flat or maisonette | £185,000 | 451 |
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.
Homes from before 1919 make up a quarter of the total. Penarth’s listed buildings include St Augustine's Parish Church, Grade I. It has 57 listed buildings on Cadw’s list: 1 Grade I.
Cadw list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Of all the crimes, 39% were violence and sexual offences. Violence came to 23.7 per 1,000 residents a year, above South Glamorgan’s towns (20.8) but below Wales’s towns (33.8). Penarth logged 1,541 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 197 complaints of anti-social conduct. For its size, Penarth records less crime per resident than 71% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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.
At the census, 4.8% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, below South Glamorgan’s towns (6%) and Wales’s towns (7.1%) alike. 17% of residents in Penarth live with a disability. 3 GP practices serve the town.
| Census 2021 | Penarth | South Glamorgan | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.8% | 6% | 7.1% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 17% | 19% | 22% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · ONS, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy among them.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Penarth. Best known first.
PierPenarth Pierin town
Art galleryTurner House Galleryin town
Theme parkCardiff International Poolin town
MuseumNational Museum Cardiff3.4 km outside town, to the north · 373K visitors a year
CastleCardiff Castle3 km outside town, to the north
CathedralCardiff Metropolitan Cathedral2.8 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
48 notable people were born in Penarth.
Erin Richards: Newsnet, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jem: Andrew Lillywhite, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sophie Ingle: Ailura, CC BY-SA 3.0 at · High Contrast: Bizzurp, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Aitor Ariño: Max Petershans, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Louis Rees-Zammit: stede64, CC BY-SA 2.0
Large town in South Glamorgan, Wales
Penarth is a built-up area of 28,391 people, in the Vale of Glamorgan 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
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penarth | 28,391 | — | B− | C | C+ | B− |
| Dinas Powis | 7,891 | 1.2 | B+ | C | B+ | B+ |
| Wenvoe | 1,129 | 3.6 | — | C− | B | A+ |
| Barry | 56,589 | 4.1 | C− | B | C− | D |
| Cardiff | 348,511 | 4.4 | C− | C+ | D | C− |
| Tongwynlais | 1,846 | 7.1 | — | C | C− | C+ |
| Rhoose | 6,776 | 7.9 | C+ | C | B | B− |
| Pentyrch | 2,374 | 8 | — | D | A− | A− |
Wenvoe, Tongwynlais and Pentyrch have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
57 on Cadw’s list, 1 of them Grade I. Its Grade I building is St Augustine's Parish Church. It also has 3 scheduled monuments.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on Natural Resources Wales’s flood risk service.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C+.
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.