Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 12,622 in Surrey, South East.
Hersham grades A overall against UK towns: better than 89% of UK towns, and #24 of 65 in Surrey. Its strongest subject is jobs & income (A): mean household income £72,999; 2.8% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. Its weakest is cost of living (C): median sale £580,000, 7.1 years of area income; rent £1,891 a month.
The 3 things Hersham 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 Hersham is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 9 buildings inside Hersham’s built-up area.
14% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Hersham. Best known first.
Historic house · Historic Royal PalacesHampton Court Palace4.4 km outside town, to the northeast
Historic houseClaremont1.2 km outside town, to the east
Historic houseOatlands Palace1.8 km outside town, to the west
Garden · National TrustNational Trust - Claremont Landscape Gardens1.3 km outside town, to the southeast
Theme parkChessington World of Adventures4.8 km outside town, to the east
GardenPainshill3.1 km outside town, to the southPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Hersham.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 52% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: 52% of workers, above Surrey’s towns (44%) and England’s towns (31%) alike. Of the commuters living in Hersham, 8% work in the town itself. This Surrey town counts 0.6 jobs per working resident.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Three of its 5 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Cardinal Newman Catholic Primary School’s results beat nearly every one of schools in England like it. At the town’s 3 primary schools, 69% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Farm Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 649 | B |
| Three Rivers AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,311 | C+ |
| Cardinal Newman Catholic Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 412 | A+ |
Aged 15 to 24: 8.7% of residents, and 16% of residents are 65 or over, below Surrey’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. At 40.3, the median resident of Hersham sits in the middle of the age range. Degrees are held by nearly half of adults.
51% women, 49% men
About 96 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Hersham | Surrey | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 22% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.7% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 16% | 19% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 13% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 3.4% | 4.2% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 49% | 42% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Surrey and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 2.9% of the town. At the census, 12% of people here had a disability, below both Surrey’s towns (14%) and England’s towns (17%). The nearest A&E to Hersham is St Peter's Hospital, 5.4 miles away. One GP practice serves the town; just over four in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Hersham | Surrey | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 88% | 87% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 2.9% | 3.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 12% | 14% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy and early deaths.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Hersham has 7 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, near both Surrey’s towns (31) and England’s towns (39). 14% of homes were built before 1919.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The owner-occupied share of households is 72%. The £580,000 median rests on 517 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026). 13% of households rent from a council or housing body.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £1,140,000 | 123 |
| Semi-detached | £600,000 | 192 |
| Terraced | £520,000 | 122 |
| Flat or maisonette | £302,500 | 80 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
46% of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences. Reported offences in Hersham came to 575 over twelve months to August 2026; nuisance and anti-social incidents added 75. Burglary and damage came to 9.8 per 1,000 residents a year, close to both Surrey’s towns (10.6) and England’s towns (9.4).
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.
6 notable people were born in Hersham.
Jimmy Pursey: Man Alive!, CC BY 2.0 · Edmund Gurney: AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain · Dorothy Hartopp Radcliffe: Anonymous. Presume Daily Chronicle photographer but no name, Public domain · John Ward: Unattributed, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hersham | 12,622 | — | A | C | B− | A− |
| Walton-on-Thames | 27,016 | 1.2 | A− | C+ | C | A− |
| Esher | 9,484 | 1.9 | A | C− | B− | A+ |
| Weybridge | 15,918 | 2 | A | C | B− | A+ |
| Shepperton | 5,917 | 2.6 | A− | D | C+ | A+ |
| Cobham | 17,505 | 2.6 | A | C− | B− | A+ |
| Upper Halliford | 2,337 | 2.7 | — | D | B− | B |
| Byfleet | 14,187 | 3 | B+ | C | C+ | B+ |
Upper Halliford has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £580,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £302,500, terraced houses £520,000, semi-detached houses £600,000 and detached houses £1,140,000.
GCSE results beat 78% of towns in England, and primary results beat 85% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
It has less crime than most places its size: less crime per resident than 76% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades B−.
Town in Surrey, England
Hersham is a built-up area of 12,622 people, in the Elmbridge 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.