Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 71,695 people live in this large town, in Staffordshire, West Midlands. Primary school results beat 89% of towns in England.
Low prices, and some weak spots to weigh against them. Prices are modest for what you get: the median home sold for £233,975, 4.3 years of area income. What holds it back is safety: 43.8 violent and sexual offences and 12.8 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Set beside UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, its crime per resident is higher than in 40%. Overall, that makes a B, good for #17 of 46 in Staffordshire. It comes out better than 62% of UK towns. The rest of its grades are middling: C+ for jobs & income and C+ for hazard risk.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The thing Stafford 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 Stafford is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 143 buildings inside Stafford’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 2 scheduled monuments.
12% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds a map from c. 1611.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Stafford. Best known first.
MuseumAncient High Housein town
Art galleryCounty Buildings and Judges Housein town
CastleStafford Castle200 m outside town, to the west
Historic house · National TrustShugborough Hall3.1 km outside town, to the east
Historic houseIngestre Hall2.4 km outside town, to the east
Historic houseBrocton Hall1 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Stafford.
Private rents average £901 a month across the Stafford council area. The median sale, £233,975, comes from 3,200 standard sales inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. 64% of households own their home, lower than Staffordshire’s towns (67%) yet higher than England’s towns (61%).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £344,995 | 927 |
| Semi-detached | £230,000 | 1,195 |
| Terraced | £185,000 | 799 |
| Flat or maisonette | £117,500 | 279 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Some 11,220 pupils attend Stafford’s 23 primaries and six secondaries. Blessed Mother Teresa's Catholic Primary School’s results beat nearly every one of schools in England like it. Of its 32 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. GCSE results at the town’s 6 secondary schools: two in five pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 45.1.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Wheeldon Primary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 536 | C+ |
| Walton High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,262 | B |
| Blessed Mother Teresa's Catholic Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 201 | A+ |
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Over the year to August 2026, 6,608 offences were reported in Stafford, along with 1,252 incidents of anti-social behaviour. There were 14.3 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Staffordshire’s towns (7.3) and England’s towns (7.8) alike. Of all the crimes, 49% were violence and sexual offences.
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.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 27% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For every resident in work, Stafford has 1.1 jobs. About 55% of its commuters stay in Stafford for work. Just over a fifth of commuters walked, cycled or took the bus or train at the census, between Staffordshire’s towns (15%) and England’s towns (27%). Driving is how 77% of commuters got to work at the census.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
7 GP practices serve the town; 72% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Women here live to 83.2 on average and men to 78.9 (2019–23). 19% of residents in Stafford live with a disability.
| Census 2021 | Stafford | Staffordshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 80% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.2% | 6% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 19% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Stafford’s listed buildings include the Church of St Mary, Grade I. Grade II* covers 15 of them, Grade I 1. 2 scheduled monuments lie in the town.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The age that splits Stafford in two is 41.2. Degrees are held by a third of adults, higher than Staffordshire’s towns (27%) and near England’s towns (34%). People 65 and over make up 19% of the town.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Stafford | Staffordshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 19% | 21% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 16% | 21% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.6% | 6.3% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 33% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Staffordshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
143 listed buildings in Stafford, 1 of them Grade I.
County Buildings and Judges House: Photo: Guy Cockin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · High House: Photo: Stocksy · Public domain · East Gate: Photo: Jonathan Hutchins · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Vine Hotel: Photo: Alan Murray-Rust · CC BY-SA 2.0
100 notable people were born in Stafford.
Morgan Gibbs-White: Sebalston, CC0 · Izaak Walton: Jacob Huysmans, Public domain · Chris Birchall: Css71588, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fran Healy: Alterna2 http://www.alterna2.com, CC BY 2.0 · Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham: William Bond, Public domain · Patrick McLoughlin: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stafford | 71,695 | — | B | A | C− | C |
| Weston | 1,056 | 3.9 | — | A− | A | A− |
| Great Haywood | 2,029 | 4.6 | — | A− | C | B+ |
| Hixon | 2,081 | 5.1 | — | A | B | B+ |
| Little Haywood | 1,968 | 5.3 | — | B+ | A+ | A− |
| Penkridge | 8,364 | 5.7 | B | B+ | C+ | B |
| Gnosall | 4,039 | 6.2 | A+ | A | B+ | A− |
| Eccleshall | 3,229 | 6.9 | A− | A− | B+ | A− |
Weston, Great Haywood, Hixon and Little Haywood have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Against all UK towns, most of them far smaller, it grades C−.
Band D council tax in Stafford is £2,274 for 2026–27, less than in 78% of UK towns (council, county, police and fire, plus the parish or town council). Your own bill depends on your home’s band; check it on GOV.UK.
Secondary results are closer to the middle, trailing 63%.
Large town in Staffordshire, England
Stafford is a built-up area of 71,695 people, in the Stafford 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.