Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A large town of 23,922 in Suffolk, East of England.
Sudbury grades B− overall against UK towns: better than 47% of UK towns, and #21 of 34 in Suffolk. Its strongest subject is cost of living (A): median sale £277,250, 4.9 years of area income; rent £965 a month. Its weakest is jobs & income (C−): mean household income £48,222; 3.8% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
The 3 things Sudbury 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 Sudbury is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 255 buildings inside Sudbury’s built-up area, 8 of them Grade I, and 2 scheduled monuments.
15% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Sudbury.
16% are under 15, about level with Suffolk’s towns (16%) and below England’s towns (18%). Sudbury has a median age of 44.9 years. Aged 15 to 24: 11% of residents.
52% women, 48% men
About 92 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Sudbury | Suffolk | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 16% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 23% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 23% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 21% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.2% | 6.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 23% | 27% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Suffolk and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
60% of pupils at the town’s 6 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). St Joseph's Catholic Primary School’s results beat nine in ten schools in England like it. Three of its 10 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Attainment 8 at the town’s 2 secondary schools averages 45.5, and 40% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wells Hall Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 494 | B |
| Thomas Gainsborough SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,603 | B− |
| St Joseph's Catholic Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | – | A |
Private renters make up 18% of households, lower than both Suffolk’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (21%). 1,034 standard sales inside Sudbury’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £277,250. Also worth knowing: households that own their home make up 63%.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £395,000 | 274 |
| Semi-detached | £280,000 | 316 |
| Terraced | £240,000 | 343 |
| Flat or maisonette | £150,000 | 101 |
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.
Sudbury’s listed buildings include the Church of All Saints, Grade I. For its size, Sudbury has 107 listed buildings per 10,000 residents. It has 2 scheduled monuments.
Historic England 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.
In the 12 months to August 2026, police logged 1,723 crimes and 166 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Sudbury’s built-up area. Homes saw 11.8 burglaries and acts of damage per 1,000 residents a year, higher than both Suffolk’s towns (6.7) and England’s towns (9.4). Violence and sexual offences accounted for 52% of recorded crime.
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 21% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
For nearly half of commuters, work was under 5 km away. About 42% of its commuters stay in Sudbury for work. There are 0.9 jobs in Sudbury for each resident in work.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The nearest A&E to Sudbury is Colchester General Hospital, 11.1 miles away. 2 GP practices serve the town; just over four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Disability touches 19% of the town’s population.
| Census 2021 | Sudbury | Suffolk | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.2% | 5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Census health answers are raw, so younger towns score better on them; for the Health Grade we use age-adjusted figures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Sudbury. Best known first.
MuseumGainsborough's Housein town
Historic house · National TrustMelford Hall2.7 km outside town, to the north
Historic houseKentwell Hall4.4 km outside town, to the northMuseumMuseumSudbury Heritage Centre and Museumin townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
255 listed buildings in Sudbury, 8 of them Grade I.
Church of St Mary: Photo: William Henderson · CC BY-SA 3.0 · The Chantry: Photo: Maria · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Maldon Grey Inn: Photo: Robert Edwards · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Corn Mill (Sudbury Flour Mills): Photo: Keith Evans · CC BY-SA 2.0
21 notable people were born in Sudbury.
Thomas Gainsborough: Thomas Gainsborough, Public domain · Maggi Hambling: StOuen, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Olga Tufnell: Palestine Exploration Fund, Public domain · Arthur George Perkin: Richard Jack, Public domain · John Penrose: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0 · Gainsborough Dupont: Thomas Gainsborough, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sudbury | 23,922 | — | B− | A | C− | C |
| Great Waldingfield | 1,377 | 2.1 | — | B+ | B+ | B+ |
| Acton | 1,666 | 2.3 | — | A− | A | B+ |
| Long Melford | 3,895 | 2.9 | B+ | B | A− | B+ |
| Bures | 1,183 | 4.7 | — | B− | B− | B+ |
| Glemsford | 3,693 | 5.3 | A | A | B+ | B+ |
| Lavenham | 1,224 | 5.4 | — | B | B− | A |
| Castle Hedingham | 1,045 | 6.9 | — | B− | A− | B+ |
Great Waldingfield, Acton, Bures, Lavenham and Castle Hedingham have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 4.4 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Church of All Saints. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
About the middle for its size: 61% 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−. Burglary was rare, with 26 reports in the year.
Large town in Suffolk, England
Sudbury is a built-up area of 23,922 people, in the Babergh 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.