Photo: Andrew Tryon · CC BY-SA 2.0How South Yorkshire stacks up
South Yorkshire is middling almost everywhere, with no grade above B. Its weak spots are above-average crime and tighter household budgets. Weighed together, that earns a D (13 of 100), 57th among the areas.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
60th of 65D8/100 Among the areas with the most recorded crime. South Anston leads its towns at #217 of 2,138; 14% of town residents live in top-quarter towns. At 44.6 violent offences per 1,000 residents, South Yorkshire sits 6th highest among the areas.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 101 per 1,000 a year (6th 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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Quiet towns, busier ones
Its safest towns are Tickhill (#427), Thorpe Hesley (#461) and Sprotbrough (#528), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime.
| 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% | |
| South Yorkshire | 14% | 29% |
Where crimes are counted
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 South Yorkshire, 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
50th of 90B−45/100 Middle of the table for schools. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Tickhill ranks highest, at #191. 62% of pupils leave primary school at the expected standard (22nd highest), and GCSE pupils average an Attainment 8 score of 45.3 (17th lowest).
Attainment 8 at GCSE: 45.3 (17th lowest), weighed equally with the primary results.
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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Cost of living
40th of 98B60/100 A little more affordable than average. Homes cost 4.3 times what the average household takes in a year, 18% below the England and Wales figure: a typical sale of £195,000 against income of £45,400. Almost no one here lives in a bottom-quarter town; Bentley and Denaby Main are typical. It leads its neighbours on affordability, ahead of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Typical sale price: £195,000 (13,330 sales, 33rd lowest).
Private rent £762 a month (22nd lowest); Band D council tax £2,355 (44th 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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Health
86th of 98D12/100 Less healthy than most areas. It trails all of its neighbours on health. Healthy life expectancy at birth is 62.0 years (men and women averaged), 3.2 years fewer than the England and Wales figure. 4% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 40% in a bottom-quarter one; Oughtibridge ranks highest.
Total life expectancy is 79.3 years (9th shortest).
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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Jobs & income
88th of 98D10/100 Lower incomes than most areas. South Yorkshire ranks 36th lowest for household income, at £45,400 a year before tax. Its claimant rate, 4.0%, ranks 13th highest, while household income ranks 36th lowest. It trails all of its neighbours on incomes.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 4.0% of working-age adults (13th highest), weighed with income 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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Getting about
51st of 98B−48/100 About average without a car. 20% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work, against 26% across England and Wales (42nd highest of 98 areas). Only Sheffield (#180 of 2,515) stands out; no other town comes close.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 23% 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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Flood risk
46th of 87B−48/100 Middle of the table on flooding. The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales put 13,547 homes in its towns at high or medium flood risk, 2.4% of them. Brierley leads its towns at #110 of 2,452; 32% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
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. 63 South Yorkshire towns.
Growth
55th of 98C+44/100 Slower than most. Since 2011 it has grown 6.5%, the 48th slowest change of 98 areas. Thurcroft leads its towns at #139 of 1,579; 5% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
Since the 2021 Census: +4.1%, 16th 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. 53 South Yorkshire towns.
How South Yorkshire compares to its neighbours
South Yorkshire beats every neighbour on cost of living; on health and jobs and income, every neighbour beats it.
| South Yorkshire | West Yorkshire | Derbyshire | Nottinghamshire | North Yorkshire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | D 1357th of 65 | C+ 3940th of 65 | C 3046th of 65 | B 5828th of 65 | A− 7517th of 65 |
| Safety | D 860th official · 14% in top towns | D 664th official · 11% in top towns | C− 2157th official · 25% in top towns | B− 4751st official · 36% in top towns | B− 5343rd official · 34% in top towns |
| Schools | B− 4522nd official · 6% in top towns | B 6123rd official · 13% in top towns | C 2643rd official · 7% in top towns | B+ 7214th official · 20% in top towns | B+ 6919th official · 17% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B 6034th official · 48% in top towns | B− 5442nd official · 47% in top towns | B 5749th official · 69% in top towns | C+ 4051st official · 22% in top towns | B− 4556th official · 52% in top towns |
| Health | D 1248th official · 4% in top towns | C 3246th official · 13% in top towns | B− 4640th official · 19% in top towns | C+ 3944th official · 18% in top towns | B+ 7322nd official · 34% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | D 1063rd official · 3% in top towns | C+ 4154th official · 13% in top towns | B− 4846th official · 11% in top towns | B− 4648th official · 15% in top towns | A− 8043rd official · 37% in top towns |
| Getting about | B− 4842nd official · 0% in top towns | A− 8031st official · 25% in top towns | C 2767th official · 0% in top towns | A 8524th official · 31% in top towns | A− 7733rd official · 24% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B− 4843rd official · 32% in top towns | C+ 4121st official · 13% in top towns | B 6229th official · 29% in top towns | C+ 4239th official · 25% in top towns | C 2746th official · 21% in top towns |
| Growth | C+ 4451st official · 5% in top towns | B+ 7337th official · 37% in top towns | C+ 4344th official · 3% in top towns | B 5839th official · 13% in top towns | B− 5151st official · 9% 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.