Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 18,857 in Suffolk, East of England.
Newmarket grades B− overall against UK towns: better than 50% of UK towns, and #20 of 34 in Suffolk. Its strongest subject is walkability (A): 24% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Its weakest is hazard risk (D): 6.8% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. The median home sold for £275,000 in the last three years, 5 times what households in the West Suffolk council area earn in a year.
The 3 things Newmarket 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 Newmarket is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 110 buildings inside Newmarket’s built-up area, 4 of them Grade II*.
18% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1926.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Newmarket.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 23% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
The car carried 74% of commuters at the census. About 41% of its commuters stay in Newmarket for work. This Suffolk town counts 1 jobs per working resident. Households had £51K a year before tax, lower than both Suffolk’s towns (£58K) and England’s towns (£55K).
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Attainment 8 at the one secondary school within 3 km averages 43.6, and 38% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. Three of its 7 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Key Stage 2 results at the town’s 6 primary schools: just over two thirds of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houldsworth Valley Primary AcademyLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 332 | A− |
| Newmarket AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 797 | C |
| Ditton Lodge Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 204 | A+ |
Each year, 13.6 burglaries and acts of damage are recorded per 1,000 residents. Reported offences in Newmarket came to 1,396 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 78. 43% of the crimes fell under 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 heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Conservation areas cover just over a fifth of Newmarket’s land, above Suffolk’s towns (6%) and England’s towns (7%) alike. Grade II* covers 4 of them. This Suffolk town has 58 listed buildings for every 10,000 residents.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
3 GP practices serve the town; nearly nine in ten patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 3.5% of residents report bad or very bad health. At the census, 85% of people in Newmarket called their health good or very good, higher than both Suffolk’s towns (81%) and England’s towns (82%). The nearest A&E to Newmarket is Addenbrooke's and the Rosie Hospitals, 12.2 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Newmarket | Suffolk | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.5% | 5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 14% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Home ownership stands at 51% of households. Private rents average £1,167 a month across the West Suffolk council area. The £275,000 median rests on 773 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £425,000 | 180 |
| Semi-detached | £295,000 | 178 |
| Terraced | £245,000 | 298 |
| Flat or maisonette | £169,000 | 117 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The 15-to-24 age group makes up one in ten residents. People 65 and over make up 18% of the town, lower than Suffolk’s towns (23%) and near England’s towns (18%). Ages in Newmarket split evenly at 40.2: half are older, half younger. 29% of adults hold a degree.
50% women, 50% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Newmarket | Suffolk | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 16% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.7% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 32% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 18% | 23% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 20% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 8% | 6.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 29% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Suffolk and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Newmarket. Best known first.
MuseumNational Horse Racing Museumin town
MuseumBurwell Museum3.6 km outside town, to the northwestAttractionAttraction · English HeritageMoulton Packhorse Bridge3.8 km outside town, to the eastAttractionAttractionNewmarket Racecourse1.4 km outside town, to the southwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
110 listed buildings in Newmarket.
Church of St Agnes: Photo: James Yardley · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Mary: Photo: Robert Edwards · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Rutland Arms Hotel: Photo: Steve Daniels · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Jockey Club: Photo: Bob Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0
29 notable people were born in Newmarket.
Ross Edgar: J H McAleely, CC BY 2.0 · Ann Lambton: Staff of the magazine, Public domain · Goldie Sayers: J'Roo, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lee Johnson: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/, CC BY 2.0 · Sydney Prior Hall: Sydney Prior Hall, CC BY-SA 3.0 · John Huske: Rod Allday, CC BY-SA 2.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newmarket | 18,857 | — | B− | B− | C− | B− |
| Exning | 2,049 | 2 | — | D | C | B |
| Burwell | 5,912 | 3.7 | A+ | B+ | B+ | A |
| Kentford | 1,124 | 4.2 | — | C− | B | A− |
| Fordham | 2,566 | 4.4 | B+ | B+ | B− | B |
| Red Lodge | 5,771 | 5.5 | C+ | B− | C | A− |
| Bottisham | 1,990 | 6.3 | — | B− | A− | B |
| Isleham | 2,287 | 6.5 | — | B+ | B+ | B+ |
Exning, Kentford, Bottisham and Isleham have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 2.4 times the typical UK town for its size.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
About the middle for its size: 57% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people report less crime per resident. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C−.
Town in Suffolk, England
Newmarket is a built-up area of 18,857 people, in the West Suffolk 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.